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MAP  OF  KOREA, 


XA' 


THE 

TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA 


By 

y 

CARLTON  WALDO  KENDALL 
(Delegate  to  the  International  Peace  Conference,  1915) 


ooo 

SECOND  EDITION 

OOO 


Published  by 

THE  KOREAN  NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION 
San  Francisco,  California 
July,  1919 


CO 


Copyright,  1919, 
by 

The  Korean  National  Association 


This  volume  is  dedicated 
to  the  men  and  rvomen  of  Korea 
rvho  have  so  heroically  given  their  lives 
that  Freedom  and  Liberty  may  be 
the  inherent  birth-right 
of  their  posterity. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE. 

Foreword  7 

General  Information  About  Korea 9 

The  Seizure  of  Korea 11 

Japanese  Autocratic  Rule 15 

Administration  and  ‘Reforms’ 16 

Economic  Oppression 17 

Religious  Oppression 19 

The  Double  Standard 20 

The  Independence  Movement 24 

The  Preparations 25 

The  Opening  Demonstration 27 

The  Japanese  Police 30 

Atrocities  and  Massacres 31 

The  New  Republic 34 

Statements  and  Press  Reports 37 

Official  Documents  and  Proclamations 47 

Declaration  of  Independence 49 

Aims  and  Aspirations 53 

Provisional  Constitution 55 

Official  Proclamation 57 

Petition  to  the  Peace  Conference 59 

Memorandum  to  the  Peace  Conference....  71 

Appendices  95 

Bibliography 103 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Map  of  Korea  Frontispiece 

The  Dai  Dong  River  1 „ ..  i0 

An  American  Mine  l 

Soldiers  Guarding  Pagoda  Park  ^ 

The  Opening  Demonstration  ( 

Japanese  Atrocities “ “ 59 


FOREWORD 


In  presenting  this  volume,  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  create  a 
feeling  of  hostility  against  the  Japanese  people.  I cannot  be- 
lieve that  the  kindly  men  and  women  of  Japan  approve  the 
unnamable  cruelties  taking  place  today  in  Korea.  Where  I 
have  used  the  term  Japan  or  Japanese  in  connection  with  the 
Korean  situation,  I refer  not  to  the  Japanese  people — the 
wives  and  daughters,  husbands  and  sons  of  the  Flowery 
Kingdom — but  to  that  spirit  of  Military  Autocracy  which  knows 
no  conscience,  no  human  regard  nor  tolerance,  and  crushes 
all  who  oppose  it  beneath  the  insatiable  wrath  of  its  iron  heel. 

It  is  that  spirit  which,  while  serving  as  a soldier  in  the 
United  States  Army,  I took  an  oath  to  crush  and  to  which 
end  the  remainder  of  my  life  is  dedicated. 

You  who  read  this  volume  may  feel  that  the  people  of 
Korea  and  the  Orient  have  no  common  tie  with  the  people  of 
America  and  Europe,  and  that  therefore  we  should  not  con- 
cern ourselves  with  their  affairs.  It  is  true  that  they  are  of  a 
different  nationality  and  a different  race.  But  today,  above 
all  nationalities  and  all  races,  is  a common  tie — Justice  and 
Humanity.  And  it  is  in  the  name  of  Justice  and  Humanity 
that  I present  this  volume  for  your  consideration,  as  a plea 
for  the  right  of  twenty  million  human  beings  to  enjoy  their 
personal  freedom  and  liberty. 

C.  W.  Kendall. 

Oakland,  California,  June  17,  1919. 


The  world  can  be  at  peace  only  if  its  life  is  stable,  and 
there  can  be  no  stability  where  the  will  is  in  rebellion,  where 
there  is  not  tranquility  of  spirit  and  a sense  of  justice,  of 
freedom,  and  of  right. — Woodrow  Wilson. 


GENERAL  INFORMATION  ABOUT 
KOREA 


Korea  is  a “buffer”  state.  In  the  Orient  she  occupies  a 
position  analogous  to  Belgium  in  Europe.  She  is  one  of  the 
oldest  countries  in  existence.  The  exact  date  of  her  birth  as  a 
nation  is  unknown,  probably  about  2,000  B.  C.  Like  Belgium, 
she  is  a country  with  a separate  and  distinct  language,  liter- 
ature and  customs. 

In  her  early  history,  she  was  instrumental  in  spreading  the 
Chinese  culture  from  China  to  Japan.  Amongst  her  most 
notable  achievements  was  the  early  use  of  movable  set  type 
and  the  invention  of  the  first  iron-clad  war  vessel. 

The  country  is  somewhat  the  shape  of  Italy.  It  is  a rich 
peninsula,  extending  out  from  the  mainland  of  Asia,  bounded 
on  three  sides  by  the  sea  and  on  the  north  by  Manchuria 
and  the  Russian  Maritime  Province.  Its  1,700-mile  sea  coast 
is  rugged  and  dotted  with  many  mountainous  islands  and  good 
harbors.  The  largest  port  is  Fusan,  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
three  miles  by  water  from  Nagasaki,  Japan,  and  a thriving 
commercial  city  with  over  a hundred  thousand  population. 
Korea  is  about  twice  the  size  of  New  York  State. 

In  climate  and  density  of  population  it  is  closely  akin  to 
the  eastern  United  States.  The  principal  industries  are  min- 
ing, agriculture  and  the  catching  of  sea  foods.  Much  of  the 
mining  is  in  the  hands  of  foreigners.  Formerly  large  con- 
cessions were  granted  to  Americans,  but  of  late  years,  as 
the  leases  expire,  they  have  gradually  been  taken  over  by 
Japanese.  The  country  is  rich  in  undeveloped  natural  re- 
sources. 

Rich,  fertile  river  valleys,  together  with  an  abundance 
of  salt-water  fish,  make  Korea  amply  able  to  support  its 
population  of  twenty  million  people.  The  number  of  foreign- 
ers in  the  country  is  constantly  on  the  increase.  At  the 
present  time  there  are  over  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
Japanese.  The  other  nationalities  represented  are,  according 


10 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


to  the  census  of  1914:  16,882  Chinese,  687  Americans,  230 
English,  97  French,  53  Germans  and  14  Russians.  Prac- 
tically all  the  Americans  in  the  country  are  either  mission- 
aries or  engaged  in  mining. 

The  capital  city  is  Seoul,  with  a population  of  close  to 
three  hundred  thousand  people.  For  centuries  Korea  was  a 
free  nation  and  ruled  itself.  But  in  the  last  few  decades,  as 
the  Orient  awakened  from  its  slumbering  lethargy,  the  little 
nation  became  the  pawn  in  the  struggle  for  Asiatic  su- 
premacy. 

Like  Belgium,  Korea  is  situated  between  three  great 
powers,  each  one  ambitious  to  be  the  greatest — the  Mistress  of 
the  Orient — so  that  in  recent  years  the  country  and  its  people 
have  been  subject  to  a long  succession  of  invasions.  China, 
Russia  and  Japan  have  each  had  their  turn  at  claiming  a 
suzerainty  over  the  country.  But  the  latter,  Japan,  becoming 
more  powerful  in  the  Orient  than  the  other  two,  could  not 
resist  the  temptation  to  prey  upon  the  little,  helpless  nation 
at  her  mercy,  in  order  to  be  forever  sure  of  the  balance  of 
power. 


THE  SEIZURE  OF  KOREA 


At  the  opening  of  the  Russo- Japanece  war,  Japan  made  a 
treaty  with  Korea  in  which  she  solemnly  vowed  to  guarantee 
the  independence  of  the  “Hermit  Kingdom,”  as  it  was  then 
called.  In  return,  Korea  opened  the  country  to  Japan  as  a 
basis  for  her  military  operations  against  Russia  and  gave 
her  material  aid  in  the  way  of  raw  supplies.  In  doing  this  she 
ran  the  risk  of  devastation  and  seizure  in  case  her  ally  was 
defeated. 

But  no  sooner  were  Japanese  arms  proclaimed  victorious 
than  Japan  began  her  first  insidious  operations  to  deliber- 
ately violate  the  terms  of  the  treaty.  To  do  it  openly  would 
have  robbed  her  of  the  moral  prestige  as  a coming  great 
power.  She  therefore  determined  to  make  Korea  ask  to 
give  up  her  independence  and  come  under  the  suzerainty  of 
Japan.  So  as  soon  as  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at 
Portsmouth,  she  forwarded  to  the  Emperor  of  Korea  a note 
to  that  effect.  But  the  Emperor  of  Korea,  foreseeing  what 
would  happen  to  his  country  and  its  people,  determined  to  do 
all  in  his  power  to  prevent  such  a catastrophe.  His  only 
hope  was  America. 

In  1882  Korea  and  the  United  States  had  concluded  a 
treaty  in  which  they  had  mutually  agreed  to  help  each  other 
in  case  of  oppressive  treatment  by  an  outside  power.  So,  in 
view  of  this  treaty,  he  sent  a personal  note  to  the  President 
of  the  United  States  asking  his  assistance.  But  before  the 
note  was  fairly  on  its  way,  a Japanese  spy  on  board  the  vessel 
discovered  it  and  notified  the  government  in  Tokio  the  exact 
hour  it  would  arrive  in  Washington. 

Immediately  Marquis  Ito  was  dispatched  to  Seoul,  with 
instructions  to  make  Korea  agree  to  a Japanese  suzerainty. 
He  arrived  and  after  numerous  conferences  realized  that 
Korea  was  determined  to  stand  firm  on  the  treaty  of  1904,  in 
which  Japan  had  guaranteed  her  independence. 


12 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


In  the  meantime,  the  date  set  for  the  arrival  of  the  Em- 
peror’s note  in  Washington  was  rapidly  approaching.  It  was 
now  or  never.  On  November  17,  1905 — a little  over  two 
months  and  a half  after  the  close  of  the  war — the  Marquis 
called  a conference  of  the  Korean  Cabinet  in  the  audience 
chamber  of  the  Emperor. 

During  the  week  preceding  this  conference,  the  Japanese 
troops  stationed  at  the  capital  had  been  making  a great  dis- 
play of  military  force  around  the  palace.  They  were  equipped 
with  field  guns  and  the  men  were  fully  armed.  They  did 
everything  short  of  actual  violence  to  demonstrate  to  the 
Koreans  the  military  prowess  of  Japan. 

To  the  Cabinet  Ministers  and  to  the  Emperor,  all  this 
display  had  a sinister  and  terrible  meaning,  for  in  1895,  under 
very  similar  circumstances,  the  Queen  of  Korea,  who  was 
opposed  to  Japanese  rule,  was  barbarously  murdered  and 
her  body  burned  in  kerosene. 

F.  A.  McKenzie,  the  British  journalist,  who  was  in  Korea 
at  the  time,  gives  the  following  vivid  account  of  what  took 
place  : 

“That  evening  Japanese  soldiers,  with  fixed  bayonets,  en- 
tered the  courtyard  of  the  palace  and  stood  near  the  apart- 
ment of  the  Emperor.  Marquis  Ito  now  arrived,  accompanied 
by  General  Hasegawa,  commander  of  the  Japanese  Army  in 
Korea. 

“The  Marquis  demanded  an  audience  of  the  Emperor. 
The  Emperor  refused  to  grant  it,  saying  that  his  throat  was 
very  bad  and  he  was  in  great  pain.  The  Marquis  then  made 
his  way  into  the  Emperor’s  presence  and  personally  requested 
an  audience.  The  Emperor  still  refused.  ‘Please  go  away 
and  discuss  the  matter  with  the  Cabinet  Ministers,’  he  said. 

“Thereupon,  Marquis  Ito  went  outside  to  the  Ministers. 
‘Your  Emperor  has  commanded  you  to  confer  with  me  and 
settle  this  matter,’  he  declared. 

“The  acting  Prime  Minister,  Han  Kew  Sul,  jumped  to 
his  feet  and  said  he  would  go  and  tell  the  Emperor  of  the 


THE  SEIZURE  OF  KOREA. 


13 


talk  of  traitors.  Han  Kew  Sul  was  allowed  to  leave  the 
room  and  then  was  gripped  by  the  Japanese  Secretary  of  the 
Legation,  thrown  into  a sideroom,  and  threatened  with  death. 
Even  Marquis  Ito  went  out  to  him  to  persuade  him.  ‘Would 
you  not  yield,’  the  Marquis  said,  ‘if  your  Emperor  com- 
manded you?’  ‘No,’  said  Han  Kew  Sul,  ‘not  even  then!’ 

“This  was  enough.  The  Marquis  at  once  went  to  the  Em- 
peror. ‘Han  Kew  Sul  is  a traitor,’  he  said.  ‘He  defies  you, 
and  declares  that  he  will  not  obey  your  commands.’ 

“Meanwhile  the  remaining  Cabinet  Ministers  waited  in 
the  Cabinet  chamber.  Where  was  their  leader,  the  man  who 
had  urged  them  all  to  resist  to  the  death?  Minute  after  min- 
ute passed,  and  still  he  did  not  return.  Then  a whisper  went 
around  that  the  Japanese  had  killed  him.  The  harsh  voices  of 
the  Japanese  grew  still  more  strident.  Courtesy  and  restraint 
were  thrown  off.  ‘Agree  with  us  and  be  rich;  or  oppose  us 
and  perish.’ 

“In  the  early  hours  of  the  morning  commands  were  issued 
that  the  seal  of  State  should  be  brought  from  the  Foreign 
Minister’s  apartment,  and  a treaty  should  be  signed.  Here 
another  difficulty  arose.  The  custodian  of  the  seal  had  re- 
ceived orders  in  advance  that,  even  if  his  master  commanded, 
the  seal  was  not  to  be  surrendered  for  any  such  purpose. 
When  telephonic  orders  were  sent  to  him  he  refused  to  bring 
the  seal  along,  and  special  messengers  had  to  be  dispatched  to 
take  it  from  him  by  force.” 

In  this  way  Japan  negotiated  the  treaty  with  Korea.  Be- 
fore the  Emperor’s  note  reached  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  she  announced  to  the  world  that  Korea  had  “volun- 
tarily” become  a protectorate  of  the  Japanese  Government 
and  that  all  future  diplomatic  business  would  be  conducted 
through  the  Japanese  Embassy. 

Five  years  later,  in  1910,  she  concluded  another  treaty  with 
the  new  Emperor  of  Korea,  who  was  known  to  be  mentally 
incapacitated  from  birth,  and  induced  him  to  sign  the  country 
over  completely.  It  then  became  a part  of  the  Japanese  na- 
tion— comprising  about  one-third  of  the  whole  empire. 


14 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Whether  or  not  a single  feeble-minded  individual  possessed 
the  right  to  sign  over  a nation  and  the  lives  and  future  lives 
of  twenty  million  people  is  for  the  reader  to  decide.  At  any 
rate,  from  that  time  on  Korea  came  under  the  autocratic  ad- 
ministration of  the  Japanese  Empire. 


JAPANESE  AUTOCRATIC  RULE 

The  nine  years  following  the  egregious  annexation  has 
been  one  of  the  most  shameful  pages  in  the  history  of  the 
Japanese  Empire.  The  heinous  crimes  committed  by  Japanese 
Military  Autocracy  have  been  carefully  hidden  from  the  world 
until  the  last  few  months. 

The  casual  traveler  visiting  Korea  has  been  shown  only 
the  more  beautiful  aspects  of  the  country:  the  Japanese 
achievements,  the  material  progress,  the  beautiful  government 
museum  in  Seoul.  The  legalized  robbery,  the  browbeating, 
the  introduction  of  licensed  public  prostitution,  the  tortures 
in  the  prisons,  the  unnamable  oppression  and  injustice— all 
these  have  been  hidden  from  his  gaze.  He  is  told  in  his 
Japanese  Railway  Guidebook  and  traveler’s  pocket  volumes 
how  Japan — Japan  the  Magnificent  Mistress  of  the  Orient — 
has  extended  to  Korea  her  brotherly  love  and  assistance  and 
is  dragging  from  the  depths  of  poverty,  crime  and  immorality, 
the  ignorant,  worthless  Koreans  and  striving  to  raise  them  to 
the  level  of  her  own  glorious  culture. 

American  correspondents,  coming  to  the  country,  have  been 
royally  entertained,  and — I am  ashamed  to  say — bought  up 
by  the  Japanese  Governor-General,  with  the  result  that  they 
have  returned  and  written  on  the  glories  of  Japanese  reforms 
in  Korea.  For  the  consumption  of  Americans  and  Europeans 
there,  the  Governor-General  has  a subsidized  organ,  the  Seoul 
Press,  which  is  a daily  English  newspaper  published  to  satisfy 
the  Occidental  desire  for  news  and  to  disseminate  the  kind 
of  news  Japan  wishes  to  make  public. 

For  scholars,  she  prepared  a well-illustrated  volume  and 
sent  it  gratis  to  all  great  men  and  important  libraries  in 
America  and  Great  Britain.  It  is  entitled  the  “Annual  Re- 
port of  Reforms  and  Progress  in  Chosen”.  In  it  she  pictures 
vividly  the  “contentment  and  prosperity”  that  Japanese  rule  is 
bringing  to  the  Koreans.  Germany,  at  her  cleverest,  could  not 
hold  a candle  to  Japan  when  it  came  to  “pulling  the  wool” 


16 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


over  the  eyes  of  the  Occident  in  regard  to  actual  conditions 
under  her  autocratic  rule. 

Administration  and  “Reforms” 

In  the  administration  of  Korea,  Japan  has  done  some 
things,  in  a material  way,  for  the  good  of  the  country,  such 
as  constructing  public  buildings,  introducing  improvements  in 
agriculture  and  extending  the  means  of  communication.  But, 
as  with  Germany’s  administration  of  Belgium,  over  and  above 
these  material  accomplishments  she  has  introduced  all  the 
heinousness  of  Militarism. 

As  soon  as  Korea  was  annexed  Japan  began  Japanizing 
the  country.  She  put  the  government  under  military  juris- 
diction and  appointed  a Military  Governor-General,  who  was' 
given  virtually  all  the  powers  of  a Czar.  Then,  through  him, 
she  began  to  instigate  a series  of  so-called  “reforms”. 

One  of  the  first  of  these  “reforms”  was  to  go  through  all 
the  public  archives  and  private  libraries  and  systematically 
collect  and  burn  Korean  works  of  literature  and  history. 
Then  she  passed  laws  which  completely  stamped  out  all 
Korean  periodical  literature — from  local  newspapers  to  scien- 
tific journals.  The  only  non-Japanese  publications  in  Korea 
today  are  certain  newspapers,  published  secretly  and  dis- 
tributed from  hand  to  hand  like  the  famous  Belgian  news- 
papers. The  type  and  hand  presses  are  carried  from  place  to 
place  and  the  lives  of  the  editors  are  as  thrilling  as  the 
Japanese  police  can  make  them. 

In  addition  to  destroying  the  literature  of  Korea,  priceless 
art  treasures  and  historical  objects  have  been  lost  to  the 
wrorld  through  needless  vandalism. 

Another  of  these  “reforms”  was  an  attempt  to  destroy 
the  Korean  language  by  making  Japanese  the  official  tongue, 
not  only  in  public  documents,  but  also  in  the  schools.  All  text- 
books were  printed  in  Japanese  under  official  Japanese  super- 
vision. The  teachers  were  and  are  Japanese  or  Japanese- 
speaking Koreans. 

Not  only  have  the  Japanese  forbidden  the  Koreans  to  he 


JAPANESE  AUTOCRATIC  RULE. 


17 


instructed  in  their  own  language,  but  they  have  instigated  a 
series  of  educational  regulations — under  the  pretext  of  uni- 
fying the  educational  system  and  bringing  it  up  to  a higher 
standard — which  limit  the  amount  of  education  a Korean  can 
pursue.  Religious  services  and  the  teaching  of  geography 
are  forbidden  in  all  the  schools.  Japanese  history  alone  is 
permitted.  All  Korean  and  Western  world  histories  are 
forbidden. 

Korean  scholars  are  not  permitted  to  leave  the  country 
and  go  abroad  for  study,  save  to  Japan.  Here  the  students, 
under  government  supervision,  are  not  allowed  to  specialize 
in  such  subjects  as  law,  history  or  economics  in  the  Imperial 
University  of  Tokyo.  They  are  strongly  advised  to  attend 
commercial  or  trade  schools  and  are  insidiously  discriminated 
against  in  the  higher  institutions. 

Under  the  guise  of  “educational  reforms”,  a systematic 
attempt  has  been  made  to  keep  the  Korean  students  in 
ignorance  of  the  advantages  of  democracy  and  to  hold  them 
down  mentally  under  the  heel  of  Japanese  Military  Autocracy, 
so  that  the  coming  generation  would  be  ignorant  of  the  funda- 
mentals of  a just  government  and  robbed  of  any  possible 
leaders. 


Economic  Oppression 

The  oppression  of  Korea  has  not  been  confined  to  lan- 
guage and  education  alone.  An  economic  oppression  was  in- 
augurated which  has  already  brought  ruin  to  thousands  of 
Korean  merchants  and  landholders.  Although,  statistically, 
the  total  wealth  of  the  country  has  increased  since  Japanese 
occupation,  the  figures  are  due  to  the  decrease  in  the  buying 
value  of  money.  Today  the  economic  status  of  the  Koreans 
is  worse  than  it  was  under  the  old  administration.  Since 
the  seizure  of  the  country,  over  one  million  five  hundred  thou- 
sand Koreans  have  emigrated  to  China  and  Siberia,  primarily 
because  they  could  not  stand  the  economic  pressure  brought 
to  bear  upon  them  by  their  conquerors. 


18 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Under  the  old  Korean  Government  before  annexation, 
the  land  was  divided  into  four  classes : 

1.  Private  lands,  owned  by  private  individuals. 

2.  Royal  lands,  belonging  to  the  king,  but  leased  in 
perpetuity  to  private  individuals,  with  the  right  of  selling  to 
another  individual  without  changing  the  ownership  and  the 
privilege  of  inheritance. 

3.  Municipal  lands,  the  titles  of  which  belonged  to  the 
various  municipalities,  but  the  practical  ownership  of  which 
was  in  the  hands  of  private  individuals. 

4.  Lands  belonging  to  Buddhist  Temples. 

Owners  of  private  lands  paid  taxes  to  the  government; 
holders  of  royal  lands  paid  tribute  to  the  royal  household; 
the  owners  of  municipal  lands  paid  fees  to  the  respective 
municipalities  which  held  the  title  of  the  lands,  and  the  lands 
belonging  to  Buddhist  Temples  were  free  from  taxation.  These 
temple  lands  were  held  in  communistic  plan  amongst  the 
Buddhists. 

One  of  the  first  deeds  of  the  Japanese  was  to  survey  the 
country'  and  confiscate  all  lands  belonging  to  the  royal  house- 
hold, to  the  municipalities  and  to  the  Buddhist  Temples.  They 
explained  this  act  on  the  technical  ground  that  since  these 
lands  did  not  belong  to  private  individuals,  they  must  be 
the  property  of  the  government.  The  Korean  owners  were 
dispossessed  and  driven  out  without  remuneration  and  the 
land  was  leased  or  sold  to  Japanese  farmers.  In  some  cases 
where  Koreans  protested  against  the  seizure,  they  were  fast- 
ened to  crude  wooden  crosses  and  shot. 

Under  the  direction  of  the  Japanese  Government,  the  Ori- 
ental Colonization  Company  was  organized  to  promote  Japa- 
nese colonization  of  Korea  and  thus  further  Japanize  the 
country.  To  induce  emigrants  to  invade  the  peninsula,  this 
company  offered  every  Japanese  settler  free  transportation 
to  Korea  and  provided  him  with  a home  and  a piece  of  land, 
to  be  paid  for  in  three  or  four  years.  The  plan  in  theory  is 
identical  with  Bismarck’s  idea  for  Prussianizing  Poland. 

Another  method  by  which  the  Japanese  gained  possession 


(upper)  THE  DAI  DONG  RIVER  NEAR  PYENG  YANG,  WITH  BUDDHIST  TEMPLES  IN 
THE  FOREGROUND. 

(LOWER)  A LARGE  AMERICAN  MINE  IN  SOUTHERN  KOREA. 


JAPANESE  AUTOCRATIC  RULE. 


19 


of  land  was  to  force  the  Korean  owners  to  sell  at  a ridicu- 
lously low  figure.  Rice  is  the  chief  agricultural  product  in 
Korea  and  the  water,  irrigating  the  rice  fields,  runs  from  one 
field  to  another  in  succession.  The  agents  for  the  Oriental 
Colonization  Company  buy  the  rice  patch  through  which  the 
water  runs  to  the  desired  piece  of  land.  Then  Japanese  agents 
or  “farmers”  cut  off  the  water  supply,  and  the  Korean  owner, 
after  vain  protests,  is  finally  forced  to  sell  his  now  worthless 
land  to  the  Oriental  Colonization  Company  at  their  own  figure 
or  remain  on  it  and  starve. 

Already  one-third  of  the  best  land  in  Korea  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  Japanese. 

Religious  Oppression 

In  regard  to  religious  matters:  From  the  very  first  they 
have  played  a most  important  part.  In  1912 — two  years  after 
the  annexation — Count  Terauchi,  the  Governor-General,  in- 
stituted what  is  known  as  the  “persecution  of  the  Korean 
Church”. 

Prominent  churchmen,  leaders  in  Korean  thought 
and  education,  were  charged  with  conspiracy  and  put 
in  prison.  American  missionaries  were  dragged  into 
the  trial,  accused  of  being  connected  with  a plot  to 
assassinate  the  Governor-General.  The  case  attracted 
world-wide  attention  and  protest.  The  Japanese  pre- 
pared ready-made  confessions  and  after  secret  tortures, 
the  prisoners  signed  these  confessions.  In  open  court, 
however,  under  the  protection  of  foreign  opinion,  the 
prisoners  denied  their  confessions  and  upon  investiga- 
tion the  confessions  were  found  to  be  absolutely  false. 
The  case  was  known  as  the  famous  “Conspiracy  Trial” 
and  was  the  first  time  the  civilized  world  penetrated 
beneath  the  veil  of  Japanese  censorship  and  propaganda, 
and  saw  with  horrified  eyes  the  true  conditions  in  Korea. 

The  absurdity  of  some  of  the  charges  against  Korean 
Christians  is  well  illustrated  by  the  case  of  Pastor  Kil 
of  Ping  Yang.  He  was  charged  with  treason  for 


20 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


preaching  against  the  evil  of  cigarette-smoking  amongst 
boys.  The  analysis  of  the  charge  is  a masterpiece  for 
Jevons’  Logic.  It  is  as  follows: 

Pastor  Kil  preached  against  the  use  of  cigarettes. 

Cigarette  manufacture  is  a government  monopoly. 

To  speak  against  their  use  is  to  injure  a government 
institution. 

To  injure  a government  institution  is  to  work  against 
the  government. 

To  work  against  the  government  is  treason. 

Therefore  Pastor  Kil  is  guilty  of  treason. 

This  is  but  an  example  of  the  working  of  the  Jap- 
anese courts  in  Korea. 

Religious  gatherings  of  more  than  five  persons  are 
required  to  obtain  a permit  from  the  government,  and 
Christians  are  compelled  to  secure  a special  certificate 
permitting  them  to  practice  their  religion.  Such  hymns 
as  “Onward,  Christian  Soldiers,”  are  not  permitted  to  be 
sung  on  the  presumption  that  they  stimulate  nationalism 
amongst  the  Koreans.  Spies  and  detectives  attend  every 
large  church  gathering  as  well  as  the  ordinary  Sunday 
services. 

At  the  present  time,  the  foreign  missionary  force 
in  Korea  numbers  about  three  hundred,  with  the  Ameri- 
can Presbyterian,  Methodist  and  Catholic  churches  es- 
pecially influential.  The  missionaries  are  practical,  hard- 
working men  and  women  and  include  all  creeds — both 
Catholic  and  Protestant.  They  have  opened  hospitals 
and  schools  as  well  as  churches  and  missions. 

The  Double  Standard 

The  social,  intellectual,  moral  and  economic  life  of 
Korea  is  divided  into  two  classes:  one  for  Japanese 
and  one  for  Koreans. 

From  the  first,  political  favoritism  and  discrimination 
were  installed.  Socially,  the  Korean  is  the  butt  of 
Japanese  scorn  and  ridicule  and  is  lorded  over  and 


JAPANESE  AUTOCRATIC  RULE. 


21 


humiliated  whenever  the  opportunity  presents  itself. 
Never  for  a moment  is  he  allowed  to  feel  that  he  be- 
longs to  anything  but  an  inferior  race — a scum  on  the 
dregs  of  Oriental  civilization. 

From  the  princes  of  the  Korean  Royal  Household 
to  the  lowest  coolie  every  man,  woman  and  child,  in 
whose  veins  runs  the  proud  blood  of  old  Korea,  is 
treated  with  a condescension  which  is  an  insult  to 
humanity.  They  are  man-handled  for  innocently  trans- 
gressing the  slightest  government  regulation.  They  are 
elbowed  off  the  sidewalks,  spat  upon,  and  taken  as  the 
lawful  prey  of  Japanese  loan  sharks  and  speculators. 
If  a Korean  has  to  mortgage  his  property  or  borrow 
money,  the  Japanese  speculators  charge  him  as  high  as 
70  per  cent  per  annum. 

Everywhere  the  Double  Standard  is  in  vogue.  The 
Koreans  and  Japanese  are  punished  by  two  entirely 
different  sets  of  laws.  If  a Japanese  is  arrested  and 
convicted  of  a minor  offense,  he  is  fined.  If  a Korean 
is  arrested  and  convicted  of  the  same  offense,  he  is 
given  twenty  or  thirty  lashes  on  his  naked  body  until 
he  is  often  beaten  into  insensibility.  In  the  Japanese 
prisons  today  this  barbaric  custom  of  the  Middle  Ages — 
beating  and  flogging — is  still  used  when  dealing  with 
Korean  prisoners,  even,  according  to  reports,  applied 
to  old  men  and  delicate  girls  and  women.  Not  only 
beating  and  flogging,  but  torture  and  mistreatment  in 
order  to  force  confessions  have  been  proven  from  time 
to  time.  The  methods  of  torture  used  by  the  Japanese 
are  said  to  be  similar  to  the  “rack”  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
putting  the  victim  in  the  greatest  misery  and  still  leav- 
ing no  visible  marks  upon  his  body — stretching  the 
nerves  and  sinews  and  often  causing  total  or  partial 
paralysis. 

Since  the  Japanese  seizure  of  Korea,  crime  has  been 
steadily  on  the  increase.  In  1911,  there  were  7,342 
Korean  convicts.  And  in  1915,  according  to  the  Jap- 


22 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


anese  statistics  there  were  14,411 — almost  double  the  num- 
ber. One  of  the  reasons  for  this  doubling  of  convicts  is 
to  be  found  in  the  sjrstem  of  Japanese  justice  under  the 
Double  Standard. 

A Korean  is  tried  before  a Japanese  court,  whose 
officials  and  judge  are  minions  of  the  military  autocracy. 
The  justice  he  receives  is  the  justice  of  the  conqueror 
to  the  conquered.  In  1915,  the  records  of  the  summary 
courts — wThich  correspond  to  our  police  courts — show 
only  seven  persons  acquitted  out  of  a total  of  59,483 
cases  and  only  forty  proven  innocent.  These  courts 
handle  minor  offenses  and  the  violation  of  administrative 
ordinances. 

The  Double  Standard  extends  to  government  posi- 
tions as  wrell  as  to  justice.  The  so-called  Korean 
Mayors  are  only  figureheads  in  the  Japanese  policy  of 
“pulling  the  wool”  over  the  eyes  of  the  w'orld.  They 
are  all  required  to  employ  a Japanese  “advisor”  or 
secretary,  who  tells  them  what  to  do  and  where  to 
sign  their  names.  These  advisors  are  the  de  facto 
Mayors.  They  are  paid,  on  an  average,  about  twice  the 
salary  of  the  Mayor.  For  instance,  the  “advisor”  of  a 
certain  Korean  Mayor  receiving  70  yen*  a month  is 
paid  150  yen  for  his  services. 

In  a similar  way  every  wealthy  Korean  is  required 
to  employ  a Japanese  steward.  The  Japanese  steward 
keeps  account  of  the  Korean’s  income  and  expenditures 
and  the  capitalist  cannot  spend  a single  cent  without 
his  knowledge  and  sanction.  This  steward  is  backed  by 
government  authority.  If  a wealthy  Korean  spends  any 
significant  sum  of  money  without  the  sanction  of  his 
Japanese  steward,  his  property  is  liable  to  confiscation 
on  the  charge  that  he  may  be  working  against  the 
government.  For  the  same  reason,  no  Korean  is  per- 
mitted to  draw  from  a bank  in  Korea  more  than  $500 


A yen  is  equal  to  fifty  cents. 


JAPANESE  AUTOCRATIC  RULE. 


23 


at  a time.  This  works  a severe  hardship  on  the  Korean 
merchant  and  gives  the  Japanese  competitor  a decided 
advantage  in  all  cash  transactions. 

Another  example  of  the  Double  Standard  is  the  scale 
of  wages  paid  laborers  and  skilled  workmen.  A Japanese 
common  laborer  receives  over  half  again  as  much  as  a 
Korean  laborer.  The  other  wages  are  as  follows: 


Japanese. 


Koreans. 


Stone  Mason  

1.96 

yen 

per 

day 

1.02 

yen 

per 

day 

Plasterer  

1.54 

u 

tt 

tt 

.96 

tt 

tt 

tt 

Carpenter  

1.44 

tt 

a 

it 

1.00 

a 

it 

tt 

Bricklayer  

1.40 

tt 

n 

tt 

1.00 

n 

ft 

it 

Blacksmith  

1.20 

tt 

a 

tt 

.60 

tt 

tt 

it 

Compositor  

.80 

tt 

n 

tt 

.45 

n 

it 

tt 

Brewer  (inch  board) 

16.00 

tt 

a 

mo. 

7.00 

u 

it 

mo. 

The  full  extent  to  which  the  Double  Standard  has 
been  practised  will  probably  never  be  known.  As  far  as 
possible,  Japan  has  endeavored  to  keep  it  hidden  from 
the  eyes  of  the  world.  Like  Germany  repressed  the 
truth  about  her  rule  in  Belgium,  Japanese  Autocracy 
has  issued  misleading  statements  and  repeated  denials. 
The  unutterable  things  they  have  done;  the  trickery  and 
cunning,  the  secret  discrimination,  the  mockery  and 
double-dealing — all  these  have  been  carefully  concealed 
from  the  world  and  especially  from  the  justice-loving 
Americans  and  Europeans. 

Probably  no  one  can  ever  realize  the  untold  suffering 
and  heartaches  caused  by  the  nine  years  of  Japanese 
rule  and  oppression.  The  misery  and  degradation,  the 
sorrow  and  death,  inflicted  by  Japanese  Military  Autoc- 
racy in  Korea  is  too  terrible  and  shameful  a thing  to 
dwell  upon.  The  true  awfulness  of  it  will  never  be 
known — like  the  horrors  in  Armenia,  Serbia  and  the 
conquered  districts  of  Belgium  and  France. 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  MOVEMENT 


The  Independence  Movement  in  Korea  is  not  a 
new  thing.  It  began  fourteen  years  ago,  just  after 
Japan  had  forced  the  Korean  Cabinet  to  grant  her  a 
suzerainty  and  had  stepped  in  to  rule  the  people  a contre 
coeur. 

Alany  of  the  Korean  leaders,  seeing  the  futility  of 
doing  anything  at  that  time  to  free  their  people  from 
the  powerful  Military  Autocracy  whose  yoke  was  already 
upon  their  necks,  fled  to  foreign  countries.  Others  who 
had  tried,  in  the  last  desperate  moments,  to  save  their 
country  and  had  failed  were  forced  to  seek  safety  in 
America  and  China.  Gradually  these  refugees  and 
patriots  came  together  and  organized  associations,  each 
member  of  which  dedicated  the  remainder  of  his  life 
to  free  the  people  at  home  from  the  hand  of  Japanese 
oppression.  These  associations  were,  for  the  most  part, 
composed  of  Korean  scholars  and  graduates  from  Amer- 
ican universities  and  preparatory  schools.  They  were 
not,  as  charged  by  the  Japanese  Government,  composed 
of  rabid  radicals,  disgruntled  politicians,  or  Bolsheviki. 

At  the  same  time,  societies  with  a similar  purpose 
were  organized  in  Korea  in  spite  of  the  rigid  Japanese 
spy  system.  The  largest  of  these,  the  Chun  Do  Kyo, 
or  “Heaven  Worshipers,”  was  encouraged  by  the  Jap- 
anese authorities  themselves.  It  was  organized  as  a 
religious  cult — supposedly  opposed  to  Christianity — 
whose  teachings  were  a combination  of  Buddhism,  Tail- 
ism,  ancestral  worship  and  Korean  superstition.  In 
reality,  it  was  a great  political  club  whose  members 
numbered  over  three  million  patriotic  Koreans. 

Quietly  and  with  careful  deliberation  they  prepared 
for  the  day  when  they  could  strike. 

Then  along  came  the  European  War  and  President 
Wilson’s  famous  statement  in  his  address  to  the  Senate 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  MOVEMENT. 


25 


in  1917  that  “ . . . henceforth  inviolable  security  of 
life,  of  worship,  and  of  industrial  and  social  develop- 
ment should  be  guaranteed  to  all  peoples  who  have 
lived  hitherto  under  the  power  of  governments  devoted 
to  a faith  and  purpose  hostile  to  their  own  . . 

The  time  to  strike  had  come.  When  the  Peace  Con- 
ference, with  its  ideals  of  “self-determination,”  met  in 
Paris,  it  gave  to  the  oppressed  Koreans  the  longed-for 
chance  to  place  their  problem  before  the  world.  So,  at 
the  opening  of  1919,  these  exiled  patriots  went  secretly 
to  Korea  and,  in  conjunction  with  the  secret  societies 
there,  organized  committees  to  begin  the  movement  for 
re-establishing  their  independence. 

Their  work  was  quiet  and  effective.  Their  plan  was 
to  begin  a “Passive  Revolution”.  No  one,  not  even  the 
Japanese,  was  to  be  harmed.  No  property  was  to  be 
destroyed  or  injured.  No  radicalism,  no  I.  W.  W.-ism, 
no  Bolshevism  was  to  be  tolerated  or  associated  in  any 
way  with  the  movement.  But  a persistent  passive  agita- 
tion was  to  be  instituted  and  continued  until  success 
attended  their  object — freedom  from  Japanese  Military 
Autocracy. 


The  Preparations 

In  the  latter  part  of  January,  an  event  occurred 
which  brought  things  to  a head.  The  old  ex-Emperor  Yi 
passed  away  in  his  palace  at  Seoul.  The  circumstances 
of  his  death  were  very  peculiar,  which  led  to  a report 
getting  out  among  the  people  that  he  had  committed 
suicide  in  order  to  prevent  the  consummation  of  the 
marriage  of  his  son,  Prince  Kon,  to  the  Japanese  Prin- 
cess Nashinoto.  This  wedding  had  been  fixed  for  about 
January  29th — one  week  after  the  death  of  the  ex- 
Emperor. 

The  Prince  had  formerly  been  engaged  to  a Korean 
girl,  but  this  engagement  was  forcibly  broken  off  when 
the  Prince  was  taken  to  Japan  some  years  ago.  The 


26 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


father  of  this  gijl  is  said  to  have  died  at  almost  the 
same  time  and  under  the  very  same  peculiar  conditions 
attending  the  ex-Emperor’s  death — so-called  apoplexy — 
and  again  it  was  reported  that  suicide  had  been  the 
real  cause  of  death.  These  circumstances  powerfully 
affected  the  people  throughout  the  whole  country,  and 
the  old  ex-Emperor  was  greatly  glorified  and  worshiped. 

Therefore,  it  was  determined  to  begin  the  demonstration 
on  the  date  of  his  funeral,  March  4th — for  other  reasons  as 
well.  A rigid  spy  system  had  been  put  in  operation  by  the 
Japanese  authorities.  Under  this  system  every  Korean  was 
registered  like  a criminal  and  given  a number  which  was 
known  to  the  police.  Whenever  a Korean  left  his  home 
village  or  town,  he  was  required  to  register  at  the  police 
station,  stating  his  reason  for  traveling  and  where  he  in- 
tended to  go.  The  general  plan  wras  to  make  Seoul  the 
center  of  activities,  inasmuch  as  the  foreign  legations  were 
there  and  the  whole  purpose  of  the  movement  wras  designed 
to  gain  recognition  and  publicity.  A sudden  influx  of 
Koreans  into  Seoul,  with  no  apparent  cause,  would  imme- 
diately create  suspicion  on  the  part  of  the  Japanese  police. 
If,  however,  the  country  people  came  into  the  capitol  to 
attend  the  ex-Emperor’s  funeral,  no  suspicion  W'ould  be 
aroused.  For  this  reason,  as  w:ell  as  the  other,  March  4th 
was  decided  upon  by  the  leaders. 

In  some  way  the  new7s  leaked  out  to  the  police  author- 
ities. But  the  Japanese  police  force  and  spy  system  were 
made  up  of  a large  number  of  native  Koreans  wdio  the 
Japanese  thought  they  had  w'on  over  as  their  owm  tools.  In 
reality  these  Koreans  had  slowly  been  creeping  into  the  posi- 
tions of  policemen,  stool-pigeons  and  gendarmes  in  order  to 
be  ready  for  the  day  their  people  were  to  strike  against  the 
hated  Japanese.  No  sooner  had  the  Japanese  authorities 
been  notified  of  the  proposed  demonstrations  than  they 
issued  orders  to  these  “supposed”  Japanized  detectives  to 
get  busy.  These  loyal  Koreans  immediately  notified  the 
leaders,  who,  with  but  a few  days  before  them,  suddenly 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  MOVEMENT. 


27 


changed  the  date  to  Saturday,  March  1st— the  day  for  the 
rehearsal  of  the  funeral. 

The  rehearsal  for  a Korean  funeral  is  almost  as  mag- 
nificent as  the  event  itself ; so  the  sudden  influx  of  Koreans 
into  Seoul  at  the  rate  of  five  thousand  a day  to  witness 
the  rehearsal  was  nothing  extraordinary.  In  the  meantime, 
the  most  prominent  representatives  of  all  classes,  religions 
and  sects  had  drawn  up  a Declaration  of  Independence  and 
signed  it.  Copies  of  this,  as  well  as  instructions  as  to  what 
was  expected  of  the  people,  were  sent  to  the  local  leaders 
all  over  Korea  through  the  aid  of  loyal  little  schoolgirls 
who  hid  them  in  their  capacious  sleeves  and  trudged  from 
town  to  town,  bringing  the  messages  of  freedom. 

It  was  arranged  for  passive  demonstrations  to  break  out 
simultaneously  in  all  the  large  cities  and  towns  in  the  pen- 
insula; also  in  Tokio,  Shanghai  and  various  other  cities  in 
Japan,  China,  Manchuria,  Russia,  the  United  States  and 
other  countries. 

In  Seoul  itself  the  people  were  to  divide  into  groups  of 
three  thousand  each — each  group  under  a leader — and  to 
march  to  different  consulates  and  government  offices,  singing 
Korean  national  airs  and  shouting  “Mansai,”  which  is  the 
Korean  for  “Hurrah.”  They  were  not  to  resist  the  Japanese 
Police.  If  they  were  beaten,  imprisoned  or  even  killed  they 
were  to  take  their  punishment  without  complaint,  and  to  do 
nothing  which  would  bring  reproach  upon  the  name  of 
Korea  or  their  movement. 

The  Opening  Demonstration 

The  night  before  the  demonstration  was  to  begin,  twenty- 
nine  of  the  thirty-three  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence gathered  in  Seoul.  After  a meeting  in  which 
final  arrangements  were  checked  up  and  the  proclamation 
read  aloud  for  the  first  time,  they  all  adjourned  to  a promi- 
nent restaurant  for  a last  dinner  together.  It  was  one  of  the 
most  singular  banquets  ever  held  in  the  history  of  any 


28 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


nation.  Each  man  present  realized  that  as  soon  as  the 
proclamation,  bearing  his  signature,  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Japanese  authorities  he  would  be  hunted  down  and  executed 
or  thrown  into  prison.  All  of  them  were  acquainted  with 
the  efficiency  and  methods  of  the  Japanese  spy  system. 
They  knew  that  to  attempt  to  escape  would  be  useless. 
So  when  the  banquet  was  completed  and  the  last  toast 
spoken  they  went  to  the  telephone,  called  up  the  Japanese 
police,  told  them  what  they  had  done  and  that  they  were 
ready  to  go  to  prison.  Then  consecrating  their  lives  to  the 
freedom  of  Korea,  they  calmly  awaited  the  arrival  of  the 
government  authorities.  No  resistance  was  offered  when 
the  police  arrived.  They  were  bundled  into  automobiles  and 
taken  away  to  prison.  One  of  the  signers,  having  arrived 
too  late  to  participate  in  the  meeting  and  dinner,  went  di- 
rectly to  the  prison  and  asked  to  be  treated  the  same  as 
the  others. 

The  next  day,  March  1st,  at  2 o’clock  in  the  afternoon, 
the  Independence  Movement  began  simultaneously  in  every 
large  city  in  Korea.  At  the  appointed  hour  the  people  gath- 
ered at  a previously  designated  place  to  attend  the  meetings 
preceding  the  demonstrations.  What  happened  at  these 
meetings  is  best  told  by  an  American  missionary  who  wit- 
nessed the  one  at  Pyeng  Yang,  the  old  capitol  of  Korea. 

It  is  as  follows : 

“March  1 : There  has  been  considered  suppressed  excite- 
ment for  some  days  among  the  Koreans,  and  we  had  various 
rumors  that  something  important  was  going  to  take  place. 
Dr.  Moffett,  Mr.  Holkcrott  and  myself  decided  to  attend  the 
local  meeting  and  see  for  ourselves  what  was  going  on. 
We  found  the  courtyard  full  of  people.  The  pupils  of  all 
our  church  schools  were  there  and  also  many  from  the  gov- 
ernment schools. 

“In  front  of  the  entrance  to  the  building  was  erected  a 
speakers’  stand  and  around  and  back  of  this  were  seated 
several  of  the  (Korean)  pastors  and  officers  of  the  Presby- 
terian churches  of  the  city.  Rev.  Kim  Sundu,  pastor  of 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  MOVEMENT. 


29 


the  Fifth  Church  and  moderator  of  the  general  assembly, 
was  speaking  when  I entered.  Pastor  Kang  Kyu-Chan  of 
the  Fourth  Church  had  already  spoken,  reviewing  the  life 
history  of  the  late  Emperor.  After  Kin  Sundu  had  finished 
speaking  he  requested  the  people  to  remain  seated,  as  there 
were  other  things  to  be  done. 

“After  the  benediction  had  been  pronounced  Kim  Sundu 
proceeded  to  read  what  was  virtually  a Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence of  the  Korean  people.  After  he  had  finished  an- 
other man  took  the  floor  and  explained  what  the  people  were 
expected  to  do,  saying  that  nothing  of  an  unlawful  nature 
was  to  be  permitted,  but  that  the  people  were  to  follow  the 
instructions  given  and  make  no  resistance  to  the  authorities 
or  attack  the  Japanese  people  or  officials. 

“Kang  Kyu-Chan  then  addressed  the  people  relative  to 
independence.  When  he  had  finished  some  men  came  out 
of  the  building  bearing  armloads  of  small  Korean  flags, 
which  were  passed  out  to  the  people.  A large  Korean  flag 
was  then  fastened  to  the  wall  back  of  the  speakers’  stands 
and  then  the  crowd  went  wild,  shouting  ‘Mansai’  and  waving 
flags.  It  was  then  explained  to  them  that  they  were  to  all 
form  in  procession  and  parade  the  streets  waving  flags  and 
saying  nothing  but  ‘Mansai,  Mansai.’  ” 

After  these  preliminary  meetings  the  people  formed  in 
parades,  headed  by  their  local  leaders,  and,  waving  flags  and 
shouting,  marched  through  the  streets.  In  the  new  capitol, 
Seoul,  students  of  the  colleges,  high  schools  and  primary 
schools,  numbering  several  thousand,  and  all  clad  in  the 
spotless  white  of  the  Korean  costume,  gathered  at  Pagoda 
Park.  From  here,  after  their  meeting,  they  marched  through 
the  main  streets  to  the  public  square,  where  they  divided 
into  the  groups  of  three  thousand  each,  as  prearranged,  and 
went  to  the  foreign  consulate  buildings.  The  various  consuls 
appeared  and  greeted  them. 

From  its  incipiency,  the  demonstration,  taken  as  a whole, 
followed  the  instructions  of  the  leaders  to  the  letter.  It  was 
“passive”  in  all  its  aspects.  The  people  were  unarmed  and 


30 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


the  parades  were  composed  of  old  men  and  women,  as  well 
as  young  men  and  students.  They  simply  jammed  through 
the  streets  singing  the  Korean  National  Anthem,  which  is 
set  to  the  tune  of  “Auld  Lang  Syne,”  waving  flags  and 
shouting.  Foreigners  who  witnessed  the  demonstrations  say 
they  were  one  of  the  most  singular  sights  they  have  ever 
seen.  The  great  white-clad  crowds,  surging  and  pulsating 
with  the  reawakaned  freedom,  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  the 
very  Japanese  who  had  inflicted  upon  them  unnameable  tor- 
tures and  depredations — and  yet,  when  at  last  they  had  the 
chance  to  wreak  vengeance  for  their  wrongs,  refraining 
from  so  doing  because  they  felt  it  would  bring  reproach 
upon  the  honor  of  their  native  land. 

When  we  realize  that  for  every  1000  Koreans  there  are 
only  17  Japanese  we  can  understand  what  would  have  hap- 
pened if  the  demonstrations  had  not  been  passive. 

The  Japanese  Police 

At  first  the  police  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  the 
people.  Many  of  the  Korean  policemen  and  supposed  spies 
took  off  their  uniforms  and  joined  the  crowds. 

In  Seoul  hundreds  of  gendarmes — armed  with  swords  and 
rifles — followed  the  demonstrators  and  tried  to  scatter  them. 
But  as  soon  as  they  had  been  scattered  in  one  place  they 
gathered  elsewhere  with  more  participants  than  ever.  One 
party  of  demonstrators  marched  to  the  Japanese  quarter, 
where  the  police  charged  them  with  fixed  bayonets  and  ar- 
rested fifteen  students,  including  six  girls.  Those  arrested 
went  unresisting  to  jail.  Soon  the  jails  were  filled  to 
overflowing. 

At  nightfall  the  crowd  disappeared,  but  an  hour  later  two 
hundred  students,  from  the  Shinsung  Academy,  assembled 
before  the  school  and  gave  three  cheers  for  the  independence 
of  Korea.  Then  they  began  to  march  the  streets  and  some 
of  the  people  distributed  copies  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence at  the  police  court  and  county  jail.  Some  ad- 
dressed the  crowd  while  others  distributed  literature.  Imme- 


JAPANESE  SOLDIERS  GUARDING  PAGODA  PARK  TO  PREVENT  FURTHER 
DEMONSTRATIONS. 


(upper) 

(lower) 


SCENE  IN  SEOUL  ON  THE  FIRST  DAY  OF  THE  PASSIVE  DEMONSTRATION. 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  MOVEMENT. 


31 


diately  the  police  called  out  the  military,  who,  without  hesi- 
tation, charged  the  demonstrators  with  fixed  bayonets,  ter- 
ribly wounding  many — women  and  old  people  being  among 
the  victims. 

Women  and  children  were  knocked  down  with  the  butts  of 
rifles.  Innocent  spectators  were  beaten  and  kicked  by  Japan- 
ese civilians  and  firemen,  as  well  as  by  policemen  and  gen- 
darmes. Throughout  the  smaller  cities,  where  there  were  no 
foreigners,  the  conditions  were  much  worse.  In  some  in- 
stances, it  is  reported,  the  gendarmes  fired  upon  the  mobs 
until  their  ammunition  was  exhausted. 

The  Japanese  Government  promptly  began  a denial  and 
suppression  of  the  facts,  issuing  to  the  outside  world  only 
what  it  wished  the  outside  world  to  know  and  scrupulously 
avoiding  any  mention  of  slaughter  and  massacres.  The 
trouble  was  minimized  in  the  official  reports  into  a few 
local  disturbances,  said  to  have  been  egged  on  by  misled 
leaders. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  force  prominent  Koreans  to  sign 
a statement,  to  be  forwarded  to  the  Peace  Conference  in 
Paris,  stating  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the 
movement  in  general  was  promulgated  by  a low  class  of 
people  and  did  not  represent  the  sentiment  of  Korea. 

Japanese  officials  in  America  issued  statements  denying  the 
atrocities.  Some  foreigners,  who  had  received  favoritism  at 
the  hands  of  the  military  autocracy  and  were  pro-Japanese, 
bitterly  denounced  the  movement.  But  beneath  the  veil  of 
censorship  and  denial  the  passive  demonstration  continued 
and  the  Japanese  police  and  gendarmes  committed  acts  which 
were  as  far  against  the  laws  of  humanity  and  civilization  as 
the  Turkish  deeds  in  Armenia. 

Atrocities  and  Massacres 

At  the  town  of  Cheam-ni,  forty-five  miles  from  Seoul, 
the  Japanese  soldiers  arrived  and  ordered  all  the  male 
Christians  to  gather  at  the  church.  When  they  had  as- 


32 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


sembled,  the  soldiers  deliberately  opened  fire  on  them  with 
their  rifles,  massacring  thirty-five.  This  was  confirmed  by 
investigation  of  the  British  and  American  consular  agents, 
and  is  admitted  by  the  Japanese  authorities,  including  Gov- 
ernor-General Hasegawa. 

Soochung,  another  village  near  Cheam-ni,  was  burned  and 
the  fleeing  fugitives  shot  at  and  bayoneted  by  the  Japanese 
soldiers  as  they  ran  from  their  burning  homes.  Reports 
have  been  received  of  the  burning  of  nine  other  villages  and 
many  Christian  churches.  The  Rev.  Stacy  L.  Roberts,  an 
American  missionary  stationed  at  Pyeng  Yang,  reports  that 
more  than  a hundred  Koreans  were  shot  or  beaten  to  death 
in  Tyung-Ju.  Throughout  the  whole  peninsula  similar 
atrocities  have  been  committed. 

Little  girls  of  only  10  years  of  age,  women  and  school 
girls,  have  been  shamefully  treated  and  are  subjected  to 
physical  punishment  and  torture  for  no  other  crime  than 
shouting  enthusiasm  for  their  own  country  and  crying  out 
for  independence.  Small  boys  have  been  knocked  down  and 
cruelly  beaten.  Already  it  is  said  that  over  three  hundred 
Korean  children,  under  the  age  of  7 years,  have  been  put  to 
death.  The  case  of  a baby,  one  year  old,  being  shot 
through  the  back,  was  witnessed  by  the  Rev.  Edward  W. 
Twing  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  who  is  Oriental  Secretary  of 
the  International  Reform  Bureau.  He  also  saw  a crowd  of 
about  twenty  Korean  schoolgirls  who  were  quietly  walking 
along  the  road — not  even  shouting — suddenly  pounced  upon 
by  a body  of  Japanese  soldiers,  who  savagely  beat  them 
with  their  guns,  knocked  them  down  and  then  treated  them 
shamefully. 

Old  men  have  been  seized  by  Japanese  soldiers  and  made 
sport  of — being  pounded,  kicked  and  beaten  until  they  could 
not  walk.  Men  who  were  dying  have  been  dispatched  with 
a shot  through  the  back.  Others  have  been  chased  and  cut 
down  with  sabers.  Deputized  firemen,  with  long  iron  hooks, 
have  been  seen  chasing  boys  and  girls,  trying  to  catch  them. 
One  case  of  an  old  man  who  was  killed  with  these  hooks, 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  MOVEMENT. 


33 


and  his  body  thrust  through  and  dragged  off  in  triumph, 
comes  in  a report  from  an  American  missionary  in  Pyeng 
Yang.  Americans  have  been  arrested  and  thrown  in  jail. 
An  American  Presbyterian  missionary,  Rev.  Eli  Mowry  of 
Mansfield,  Ohio,  has  been  sentenced  to  six  months  in  prison 
for  sheltering  five  Koreans  for  two  days. 

Christians — both  men  and  women — have  been  taken  to 
Japanese  churches,  stripped  of  their  clothing  and  tied  to 
crosses  and  beaten  twenty-nine  times  upon  their  naked 
bodies,  according  to  information  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  David 
Lee  of  San  Francisco.  Christian  churches  have  been  looted 
and  Bibles  destroyed.  Little  girls  have  been  dragged  from 
their  homes  by  their  hair  and  tied  to  telegraph  poles  by  the 
same  means  and  publicly  flogged.  Women  have  been  vio- 
lated and  beaten  with  inhuman  viciousness.  It  has  been 
Belgium  over  again,  save  that  difference  in  religion,  as  well 
as  nationality,  has  been  seized  upon  as  an  excuse  for 
bestiality. 

In  the  first  three  months  over  fifty  thousand  Koreans  have 
been  killed  or  wounded.  The  horror  and  brutality  of  some 
of  the  deeds  committed  are  beyond  belief.  In  the  name  of 
crushing  the  Independence  Movement,  the  military  author- 
ities have  transgressed  the  laws  of  all  civilization  and  proved 
beyond  the  shadow  of  a doubt  that  Japanese  Military  Autoc- 
racy is  no  longer  fit  to  be  respected  by  any  civilized  people. 
That  the  Japanese  people  should  allow  such  a stain  upon  their 
nation  is  incredible. 


THE  NEW  REPUBLIC 


Before  the  outbreak  of  the  Independence  Movement  in 
Korea,  proper,  the  Korean  students  in  Tokio,  Japan,  number- 
ing about  eight  hundred,  drew  up  a petition  to  present  to  the 
Japanese  Emperor  and  Diet,  as  well  as  to  the  foreign  Am- 
bassadors and  Ministers  in  Japan,  asking  for  the  freedom 
and  independence  of  Korea.  When  they  attempted  to  hand 
in  the  petition  they  came  into  conflict  with  the  Japanese 
police  and  an  open  fight  ensued.  Over  sixty  students  were 
arrested  and  some  given  prison  terms. 

In  the  United  States  demonstrations  were  held  by  the 
Koreans  in  New  York,  Chicago,  Denver,  Detroit,  Honolulu, 
Akron,  Ohio;  Pueblo,  Colorado;  Yakima,  Washington;  Su- 
perior, Wyoming,  and  in  San  Francisco,  Sacramento,  Stock- 
ton,  Riverside  and  Los  Angeles,  California. 

In  Philadelphia — the  Cradle  of  American  Liberty — a con- 
gress of  Koreans  and  sympathetic  Americans  convened. 
Just  before  it  broke  up,  the  delegates  adjourned  to  the 
Declaration  Room  in  Independence  Hall.  Here,  after  read- 
ing the  Korean  Proclamation  of  Independence,  they  ap- 
proached the  old,  cracked  Liberty  Bell.  Amid  profound 
silence  they  placed  their  hands  upon  it,  and,  closing  their 
eyes,  prayed  for  the  freedom  of  Korea  and  the  success  of 
the  new  movement.  Those  who  saw  them  say  it  was  the 
most  impressive  ceremony  the  City  of  Philadelphia  has  ever 
witnessed. 

Meanwhile,  other  demonstrations  were  held  in  Mexico, 
Manila,  Shanghai,  Pekin,  Siberia  and  Manchuria.  In  many 
of  these  places  proclamations  were  issued,  declaring  the  inde- 
pendence of  Korea,  and  given  into  the  hands  of  the  foreign 
embassies.  A National  Council  was  called  at  Nikolskoe,  on 
the  Ussuri  River  in  Siberia,  and  a provisional  government 
established,  with  a temporary  capitol  in  Manchuria. 

A cabinet  of  eight  members  was  formed  and  a committee 
consisting  of  eighteen  members  was  put  in  charge  of  the 


THE  NEW  REPUBLIC. 


35 


new  government.  The  office  of  Provisional  President  was 
left  vacant  for  the  time  being,  the  committee  as  a whole 
serving  in  the  executive  capacity.  Dr.  Syngman  Rhee,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard  and  PhD.  of  Princeton — receiving  his 
degree  while  Woodrow  Wilson  was  President  of  the  col- 
lege— was  named  Secretary  of  State.  The  portfolio  of 
Secretary  of  War  was  given  to  General  Lee  Dong  Whui, 
who  immediately  began  the  organization  of  an  army.  C.  H. 
Ahn,  prominent  Christian  educator  and  organizer  of  the 
Korean  National  Association  in  America,  was  appointed 
Secretary  of  the  Interior;  Yun  Hyuh  Jin  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury;  Ham  Nyung  Wee  as  Secretary  of  Justice  and 
Young  Man  Park,  a graduate  of  the  University  of  Nebraska, 
as  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 

Three  delegates  were  appointed  to  put  the  plea  of  the 
Korean  people  before  the  League  of  Nations.  Two  of  them, 
Dr.  Henry  Chung  and  Dr.  Syngman  Rhee,  were  in  the 
United  States,  having  fled  from  Korea  just  before  its  an- 
nexation by  the  Japanese.  They  held  old  Korean  passports, 
which  the  State  Department  at  Washington  could  not  recog- 
nize as  valid  without  straining  diplomatic  relationship  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Japan.  Naturally  the  Japan- 
ese Government  refused  to  issue  new  ones.  Therefore,  the 
third  delegate,  John  Kiusic  Kimm,  was  the  only  one  to 
reach  Paris.  He  presented  the  claims  before  the  Peace  Con- 
ference, where  they  are  now  under  consideration. 

Following  the  first  demonstrations,  the  Japanese  War  De- 
partment dispatched  two  additional  divisions  of  troops  to 
Korea  and  began  preparations  for  extended  military  and 
diplomatic  maneuvers.  In  order  to  uphold  her  position  at 
the  Peace  Conference,  Japan  issued  a statement  which 
“promised”  complete  reforms  in  the  administration  of  Korea 
just  as  soon  as  the  Independence  Movement  was  crushed. 
She  spoke  of  her  “Monroe  Doctrine  in  the  Orient”  and  com- 
pared her  administration  of  Korea  to  the  American  admin- 
istration of  the  Philippines  and  Cuba.  In  reality,  the  cases 
are  not  similar.  In  the  Philippines  franchise  is  enjoyed,  a 


36 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Philippine  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  is  elected 
by  the  people,  with  the  right  to  overrule  the  Governor- 
General’s  veto.  In  Korea  franchise  is  not  enjoj-ed  by  the 
people.  They  have  no  legislative  representation  and  the 
Governor-General  is  supreme,  invested  with  the  power  of 
control  over  all  Korea,  commander  of  the  army  and  navy 
and  virtually  a Czar  in  his  own  domains. 

As  the  new  republic  took  form  charges  were  made  that 
the  Korean  people  were  not  sufficiently  competent  to  govern 
themselves  and  that  the  Independence  Movement  was  pro- 
mulgated by  the  spread  of  Bolshevism  from  Russia.  In 
reality,  the  new  government  is  a very  business-like  proposi- 
tion, modeled  after  the  government  of  the  United  States  as 
far  as  is  possible,  consistent  with  the  education  of  the 
masses.  In  absolutely  no  respect  does  it  aim  at  a redis- 
tribution of  wealth,  government  ownership  of  industries, 
land  nationalization,  communism  or  other  Utopian,  anarch- 
istic or  Bolshevistic  dreams. 

The  leaders  are  able,  conservative  college  graduates,  and 
realize  the  limits  of  their  people.  Their  aim  is  to  establish 
a sound  republic  with  each  citizen  enjoying  freedom  of 
speech,  religion  and  personal  liberty,  and  to  have  their  little 
nation  no  longer  the  pawn  of  Asia. 

All  they  ask  is  to  be  free  forever  from  the  Prussian 
trickery,  brutality  and  oppression  of  Japanese  Imperalistic, 
Autocratic  Militarism. 


STATEMENTS 
AND  PRESS  REPORTS 


FRAGMENTS  SELECTED  FROM 
NEWS  ITEMS,  PERSONAL  LETTERS, 
ARTICLES  AND  PRESS  REPORTS 

JAPAN’S  POLICY  IN  KOREA 

“Since  Japan  has  annexed  Korea  the  spirit  of  her  rule, 
at  any  rate  since  the  death  of  Prince  Ito,  has  not  been  one 
to  develop  and  benefit  the  Korean  people,  but  to  make  them 
a subject  people  and,  so  far  as  possible,  to  stamp  out  any 
Korean  individuality.  In  the  Philippine  Islands,  in  Egypt, 
in  India,  in  spite  of  complaints  that  are  often  made,  natives 
still  concede  that  they  are  given  a large  part  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country.  Not  so  in  Korea.  The  Koreans  are 
treated  as  an  inferior  race  (by  that  people  that  is  so  in- 
sistent upon  racial  equality),  are  forbidden  to  teach  their 
own  language,  are  not  allowed  to  go  abroad  for  study,  but 
can  be  trained  only  in  Korea  or  in  Japan.  Now  that  the 
revolt  of  the  oppressed  people  has  come,  it  is  known  on 
unimpeachable  testimony  that  the  revolutionists,  though 
offering  no  resistance,  are  treated  with  barbarity  so  severe 
and  uncalled-for  that  it  has  brought  forth  the  protests  of 
foreign  residents,  English  and  American  business  men  and 
officials,  as  well  as  missionaries.” 

JEREMIAH  W.  JENKS,  PhD.,  LL.  D. 
(Research  Professor  of  Government  and  Public  Administra- 
tion, New  York  University;  Chairman,  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton Institute,  and  Director  The  Far  Eastern  Bureau.) 

GERMAN  MILITARY  SYSTEM  INTRODUCED 

“Thirty  missionaries  gathered  in  Seoul,  March  16,  that  I 
might  hear  the  situation  discust.  They  agreed  in  desig- 
nating the  Japanese  military  and  police  and  gendarme  sys- 
tem in  the  Korean  peninsula  the  German  machine ! Foreign- 
ers— consuls,  business  men,  missionaries — are  unanimous  in 


40 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


their  condemnation  of  the  system  which  has  ruled  Korea 
since  1910.  This  system  was  learned  from  the  Germans. 
While  it  may  have  been  crushed  in  Belgium  and  Europe,  it 
still  exists  in  Korea  and  Asia. 

“The  tortures  which  the  Koreans  suffer  at  the  hands  of 
the  police  and  gendarmes  are  identical  with  those  employed 
in  the  famous  conspiracy  trials.  I read  affidavits,  now  on 
their  way  to  the  United  States  and  British  Governments, 
which  made  one’s  blood  boil,  so  frightful  were  the  means 
used  in  trying  to  extort  confessions  from  prisoners.  And 
many  of  these  had  no  part  in  the  demonstrations,  but  were 
simply  onlookers. 

“In  Tokio,  on  March  21,  by  arrangement  of  Galen  M. 
Fisher,  National  Secretary  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  for  Japan,  I 
met  a few  Japanese  and  foreigners  and  discust  the  Korean 
situation.  One  of  the  Japanese  (a  member  of  the  Parlia- 
ment, who  will  be  in  America  in  May),  told  me  that  the 
more  the  world  knows  about  Japanese  misrule  in  Korea,  the 
better  it  will  be  for  Japan,  for  thus  the  sooner  will  the 
nation  get  rid  of  the  militarism  which  now  dominates  the 
empire.” 

A.  E.  ARMSTRONG,  of  Toronto,  Canada, 
(Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Canada.) 

TO  REDUCE  KOREANS  TO  SERFDOM 

“It  was  my  opinion  when  I was  in  Korea  and  is  my  opin- 
ion still,  that  it  is  Japan’s  intention  that  all  the  Koreans 
shall  be  practically  serfs,  pursuing  only  the  trades  of  farm- 
ers and  artisans,  leaving  to  the  Japanese  immigrants  the 
administration  of  government,  the  mercantile  and  banking 
trades,  and  other  more  profitable  callings.  In  other  words, 
Korea  is  being  exploited  altogether,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Japanese,  with  little  thought  of  any  obligation  to  the  natives. 

“The  attitude  of  the  Japanese  Government  toward  Ameri- 
can missions,  as  shown  by  the  unsuccessful  attempt  to  dis- 


STATEMENTS  AND  PRESS  REPORTS. 


41 


credit  them  in  the  course  of  the  conspiracy  in  1912  and  the 
limitations  put  upon  the  mission  schools  since,  is  caused  by 
a desire  to  eliminate  anything  which  may  interfere  with  the 
complete  Japanization  of  Korea  and  the  confining  of  the 
natives  to  the  status  of  contented  farmers  and  artisans.” 
PROFESSOR  T.  A.  CRANE 

(Pittsburg  University.) 

STATEMENT  OF  THE  JAPANESE  CONSTITU- 
TIONAL PARTY 

Representative  Konosuke  Moriya,  who  was  dispatched  by 
the  Constitutional  or  opposition  party,  to  Korea  to  investi- 
gate the  disturbances,  has  reported  the  insurrection  to  be 
due  to  the  following  causes : 

Discriminatory  treatment  given  to  the  Korean  subjects, 
who  are  refused  equal  treatment  with  Japanese  in  matters 
relating  to  appointments  in  government  offices  and  stipends 
allowed. 

Complicated  and  impracticable  administrative  measures, 
particularly  strict  measures  for  the  tax  collection,  which  are 
against  the  old  customs  and  manners  of  Korea. 

Extreme  oppression  on  public  speeches.  Koreans  have  no 
organs  to  give  utterance  to  their  complaints  which  do  not 
reach  the  ears  of  the  Governor-General. 

Forcible  adoption  of  the  assimiliation  system.  It  is  a great 
error  and  failure  of  colonial  policy  to  attempt  to  enforce 
upon  the  Koreans,  with  a 2,000-year  history,  the  same  spirit- 
ual and  mental  training  as  on  the  Japanese  people. 

Spread  of  the  principle  of  the  self-determination  of  na- 
tions, which  he  describes  as  the  rising  tide  of  the  thoughts 
of  the  world’s  nations  and  which  has  deeply  implanted  itself 
in  the  minds  of  the  Korean  people. 

(Associated  Press  Correspondence  from  Tokio,  May  2nd, 
1919.) 


42 


THE,  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


A SAMPLE  OF  JAPANESE  PROPAGANDA 

Despite  all  rumors  to  the  contrary,  there  is  no  tendency 
in  the  Japanese  official  quarters  to  suggest  that  American 
missionaries  have  been  instigating  the  uprisings  in  Korea. 
That  a few  of  them  have  been  subjected  to  search  and 
arrest  is,  while  unfortunate,  not  to  be  taken  too  seriously. 
It  needs  no  effort  of  the  imagination  to  assume  that  some 
malcontent  Koreans,  professing  to  be  Christians,  should  seek 
to  abuse  the  sanctum  of  their  unsuspecting  teachers  for  their 
misguided  endeavors.  It  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  clergy- 
men who  have  lived  long  in  Korea  and  who,  with  all  just 
and  right-thinking  men,  should  know  the  conditions  of  the 
Koreans  and  recognize  the  good  the  Japanese  regime  is 
doing  them,  should  ill-advisedly  lend  themselves  to  a fatal 
movement,  which  must  end  in  failure  and  unnecessary 
bloodshed. 

Reports  current  in  this  country  of  alleged  cruelties  on 
the  part  of  the  Japanese  authorities  in  dealing  with  the 
situation  are  utterly  unfounded. 

(Extract  from  a press  statement  printed  in  Washington, 
D.  C.,  April  17,  1919,  and  marked  ‘'Exclusive  Dispatch.”) 

AN  ANSWER  TO  THE  ABOVE,  PRINTED  TWO 
WEEKS  EARLIER 

“In  a remarkable  manner  the  Korean  Independence  Move- 
ment has  manifested  skill,  courage  and  organization  that  has 
been  a great  surprise  to  many.  It  has  shown,  more  than 
ever  before,  how  unreasonable,  without  justice,  cruel  and 
brutal  the  military  rule  of  Japan  is  in  this  land.  I could 
hardly  believe  these  things  if  I had  not  seen  them  with  my 
own  eyes. 

“The  police  and  soldiers  have  arrested  old  men  and  little 
children  and  cruelly  beaten  them.  . . . These  things 
have  been  witnessed,  not  by  one  or  two,  but  by  scores  of 
missionaries  and  others  in  many  parts  of  Korea  during 
March.  If  the  world  could  only  know  these  things,  they 


STATEMENTS  AND  PRESS  REPORTS. 


43 


would  certainly  heed  this  cry  of  distress  from  an  oppressed 
people.  But  the  Japanese  are  doing  all  they  can  to  keep  the 
world  from  knowing  the  truth.  A report  has  just  come  that 
in  one  city,  from  which  letters  have  been  sent,  they  are  mak- 
ing it  very  hard  for  the  missionaries,  even  hinting  at  de- 
portation, unless  they  stop  telling  the  truth. 

“The  following  are  some  of  the  things  that  I have  actu- 
ally seen  with  my  own  eyes: 

“Small  school  boys  knocked  down  and  cruelly  beaten  by 
Japanese  soldiers.  This  was  not  a question  of  arresting 
them,  but  savage,  unjustifiable  barbarism. 

“Soldiers  stop  and  deliberately  fire  into  a crowd  com- 
posed only  of  girls  and  women,  who  were  simply  shouting 
‘Mansai.’ 

“A  small  boy  of  1 year  shot  through  the  back. 

“An  unresisting  old  man  of  65  years  pounded,  kicked 
and  beaten  by  several  Japanese  soldiers  until  he  could  not 
walk. 

“A  crowd  of  about  twenty  school  girls,  who  were  quietly 
walking  along  the  public  road,  not  even  shouting,  chased 
by  soldiers,  beaten  with  guns,  knocked  down  and  so 
shamefully  treated  that  it  made  one’s  blood  boil. 

“Japanese  firemen  chasing  boys  and  girls  with  long  iron 
hooks,  trying  to  catch  them  with  them. 

“A  Korean  in  a hospital,  paralyzed,  with  his  head 
crushed  in  with  one  of  these  hooks. 

“A  man  dying,  shot  through  the  back. 

“One  hundred  men  with  torn  and  bloody  clothes,  tied 
together  with  ropes,  taken  to  jail. 

“An  American  missionary  roughly  arrested  while  stand- 
ing in  his  own  yard  and  looking  on,  but  doing  nothing  else. 

“Women  knocked  down  with  guns  and  kicked  into  the 
ditch. 

“These  and  many  other  things  I have  seen  with  my  own 
eyes;  other  foreigners  have  seen  the  same  and  worse.  One 
can  little  imagine  the  reign  of  terror  in  all  parts  of  this  land. 
. . . And  the  punishments  and  tortures  at  the  police  sta- 


44 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


tions  and  jails  make  a still  more  awful  story.  I have  seen 
men  who  wrere  beaten  on  wooden  crosses  by  the  Japanese.” 
EDWARD  W.  THWING,  of  Boston,  Mass. 
(Oriental  Secretary  of  the  International  Reform  Bureau.) 

THE  MASSACRE  AT  CHEAM-NI 

Details  of  the  massacre  at  Cheam-ni  were  obtained  by  the 
Associated  Press  correspondent  who  visited  that  place  in 
company  with  Raymond  S.  Curtice,  the  American  Vice-Con- 
sul at  Seoul,  and  Mr.  Underwood,  an  American  missionary. 
Subsequently,  the  correspondent  again  visited  the  place  with 
Mr.  Royds,  the  British  Consul,  and  several  missionaries,  in- 
cluding the  Rev.  Herron  Smith,  who  is  in  charge  of  the 
work  of  the  Methodist  church  in  Korea.  Describing  his 
visit  to  Cheam-ni,  the  Seoul  correspondent  writes  that  when 
they  asked  residents  of  nearby  villages  why  that  hamlet  had 
been  burned,  they  were  told  that  it  was  because  there  was  a 
Christian  church  and  many  native  Christians  in  the  village. 

“When  we  got  to  the  place,  which  had  been  a village  of 
about  forty  houses,  we  found  only  four  or  five  standing,  all 
the  rest  were  smoking  ruins,”  he  continued.  “We  found  a 
body,  frightfully  burned  and  twisted,  lying  in  a compound, 
and  another,  either  of  a young  man  or  woman,  just  outside 
the  church  compound.  Several  groups  of  people  were 
huddled  under  little  straw  shelters  on  the  hillside  with  a 
few  of  their  pitiful  belongings  about  them.  They  were 
mostly  women,  some  old,  others  young  mothers  with  babies, 
but  all  sunk  in  the  dull  apathy  of  abject  misery  and  despair. 
Mr.  Underwood,  an  American  missionary,  who  talked  to 
them  in  their  own  language,  brought  the  story  of  what  hap- 
pened. 

“The  day  before  we  arrived  soldiers  came  to  the  village 
and  ordered  all  the  male  Christians  to  gather  at  the  church. 
When  about  thirty  were  in  the  church  the  soldiers  opened 
fire  on  them  with  rifles  and  then  entered  the  church  and 
finished  them  off  with  swords  and  bayonets.  After  this  they 


STATEMENTS  AND  PRESS  REPORTS. 


45 


set  fire  to  the  church  and  to  houses  which  otherwise  would 
not  have  been  burned.” 

One  Korean  told  the  correspondent  he  was  alive  because 
he  was  not  a Christian  and  was  not  in  the  church.  Later 
when  the  correspondent  made  a second  trip  to  Cheam-ni 
with  Mr.  Royds,  the  British  Consul,  and  a party  of  seven, 
including  several  missionaries,  he  said:  “We  photographed 
freely  without  interference,  but  when  we  started  to  talk  to 
the  natives  a policeman  would  saunter  up  and  the  Korean 
would  ‘freeze  up.’  They  were  in  fear  of  what  might  hap- 
pen later  if  they  were  seen  talking  to  us.” 

The  party,  however,  divided  up  and  obtained  many  inter- 
views concerning  the  story,  as  the  correspondent  learned  it 
on  his  first  visit.  They  were  told  that  two  of  those  killed 
in  or  near  the  church  were  women  who  went  to  that  build- 
ing to  learn  what  was  happening  to  their  husbands. 

( Associated  Press  Dispatch  from  Tokio  May  1st,  1919.) 

THE  AFFAIR  AT  DUNGCHOO 

Reports  from  Korea  state  that  during  a demonstration  in 
Dungchoo  on  the  29th  of  March  some  persons  were 
killed  and  over  two  hundred  wounded.  Forty  persons  were 
hooked  and  dragged  by  Japanese  soldiers  and  firemen  and 
half-buried,  upright,  in  front  of  the  railway  station,  and 
relatives  who  came  to  identify  the  killed  and  wounded  were 
beaten  so  that  nobody  dared  to  fetch  away  the  bodies. 

A local  doctor,  named  Shen,  to  whom  the  wounded  went 
for  treatment,  was  whipped  and  beaten  with  rifle  butts  and 
finally  arrested.  Osan  Academy  was  destroyed  and  the 
church  of  Heaven  Worshipers  burned  down  by  the  Jap- 
anese. 

(Reuter’s  Dispatch  from  Pekin,  April  4th,  1919.) 

A JAPANESE  DIATRIBE  AGAINST  AMERICAN 
MISSIONARIES 

“They  (the  American  missionaries)  are  propagating  Chris- 
tianity in  Korea,  but  pay  no  attention  to  the  interests  of 


46 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Japan,  the  sovereign  of  Korea.  While  engaged  in  Christian 
propaganda  work,  the  American  Missionaries  run  schools, 
and  diffuse  foreign  political  and  social  ideas  among  the  half- 
civilized  people.  The  principle  of  liberty  is  recklessly  advo- 
cated among  them,  this  having  an  evil  influence  upon  their 
undeveloped  minds,  which  are  consequently  tainted  with 
excessively  radical  ideas. 

“The  American  missionaries  include  in  their  number  some 
some  who  have  no  sound  judgment  and  discretion.  Such 
people  confuse  the  ideas  of  the  Koreans,  who  are  in  a 
similar  mental  condition  as  those  Japanese  students  who  are 
now  making  an  outcry  for  democracy,  without  understand- 
ing what  this  stands  for.  As  a result,  some  Korean  con- 
verts to  Christianity  are  so  senseless  as  to  have  recourse  to 
radical  action.” 

***** 

“In  order  to  wreak  their  discontent  and  bitter  feelings, 
these  Koreans,  under  the  mask  of  Christianity,  I think,  have 
created  the  present  disturbances.  It  may  safely  be  de- 
clared that  missionaries  are  responsible  for  the  fact  that  the 
advanced  ideas  of  foreign  countries  have  been  diffused  with- 
out modification  among  the  Koreans,  whose  state  of  civiliza- 
tion is  not  yet  very  high,  and  for  the  fact  that  among  those 
taking  part  in  the  disturbances  were  girl  students.” 

( Quotation  from  Mr.  Midoru  Komatsu,  late  Director  of 
Foreign  Affairs  in  the  Government-General  of  Korea, 
Published  in  The  Japan  Advertiser  of  March  9th,  1919.) 


OFFICIAL  DOCUMENTS 


AND 

PROCLAMATIONS 


OF  THE 

PROVISIONAL  GOVERNMENT 
FOR  THE 


NEW  REPUBLIC  OF  KOREA 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 


“We  herewith  proclaim  the  independence  of  Korea  and 
the  liberty  of  the  Korean  people.  We  tell  it  to  the  world  in 
witness  of  the  equality  of  all  nations  and  we  pass  it  on  to 
our  posterity  as  their  inherent  right. 

“We  make  this  proclamation,  having  back  of  us  5,000  years 
of  history,  and  20,000,000  of  a united  loyal  people.  We  take 
this  step  to  insure  to  our  children  for  all  time  to  come,  per- 
sonal liberty  in  accord  with  the  awakening  consciousness  of 
this  new  era.  This  is  the  clear  leading  of  God,  the  moving 
principle  of  the  present  age,  the  whole  human  race’s  just 
claim.  It  is  something  that  cannot  be  stamped  out,  or  stifled, 
or  gagged,  or  suppressed  by  any  means. 

“Victims  of  an  older  age,  when  brute  force  and  the  spirit 
of  plunder  ruled,  we  have  come  after  these  long  thousands 
of  years  to  experience  the  agony  of  ten  years  of  foreign 
oppression,  with  every  loss  to  the  right  to  live,  every  restric- 
tion of  the  freedom  of  thought,  every  damage  done  to  the 
dignity  of  life,  every  opportunity  lost  for  a share  in  the  in- 
telligent advance  of  the  age  in  which  we  live. 

“Assuredly,  if  the  defects  of  the  past  are  to  be  rectified, 
if  the  agony  of  the  present  is  to  be  unloosed,  if  the  future 
oppression  is  to  be  avoided,  if  thought  is  to  be  set  free,  if 
right  of  action  is  to  be  given  a place,  if  we  are  to  attain  to 
any  way  of  progress,  if  we  are  to  deliver  our  children  from 
the  painful,  shameful  heritage,  if  we  are  to  leave  blessing 
and  happiness  intact  for  those  who  succeed  us,  the  first  of  all 
necessary  things  is  the  clear-cut  independence  of  our  people. 
What  cannot  our  twenty  millions  do,  every  man  with  sword 
in  heart,  in  this  day  when  human  nature  and  conscience  are 
making  a stand  for  truth  and  right?  What  barrier  can  we 
not  break,  what  purpose  can  we  not  accomplish? 

“We  have  no  desire  to  accuse  Japan  of  breaking  many 
solemn  treaties  since  1636,  nor  to  single  out  specially  the 
teachers  in  the  schools  or  government  officials  who  treat  the 


50 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


heritage  of  our  ancestors  as  a colony  of  their  own,  and  our 
people  and  their  civilization  as  a nation  of  savages,  finding 
delight  only  in  beating  us  down  and  bringing  us  under  their 
heel. 

“We  have  no  wish  to  find  special  fault  with  Japan’s  lack 
of  fairness  or  her  contempt  of  our  civilization  and  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  her  state  rests;  we,  who  have  greater  cause 
to  reprimand  ourselves,  need  not  spend  precious  time  in  find- 
ing fault  with  others;  neither  need  we,  who  require  so 
urgently  to  build  for  the  future,  spend  useless  hours  over 
what  is  past  and  gone.  Our  urgent  need  today  is  the  settling 
up  of  this  house  of  ours  and  not  a discussion  of  who  has 
broken  it  down,  or  what  has  caused  its  ruin.  Our  work  is 
to  clear  the  future  of  defects  in  accord  with  the  earnest 
dictates  of  conscience.  Let  us  not  be  filled  with  bitterness  or 
resentment  over  past  agonies  or  past  occasions  for  anger. 

"Our  part  is  to  influence  the  Japanese  Government,  domi- 
nated as  it  is  by  the  old  idea  of  brute  force  which  thinks  to 
run  counter  to  reason  and  universal  law,  so  that  it  will 
change,  act  honestly  and  in  accord  with  the  principles  of 
right  and  truth. 

“The  result  of  annexation,  brought  about  without  any  con- 
ference with  the  Korean  people,  is  that  the  Japanese,  indif- 
ferent to  us,  use  every  kind  of  partiality  for  their  own,  and 
by  a false  set  of  figures  show  a profit  and  loss  account  be- 
tween us  two  peoples  most  untrue,  digging  a trench  of  ever- 
lasting resentment  deeper  and  deeper  the  farther  they  go. 

“Ought  not  the  way  of  enlightened  courage  to  be  to  correct 
the  evils  of  the  past  by  ways  that  are  sincere,  and  by  true 
sympathy  and  friendly  feeling  make  a new  world  in  which 
the  two  peoples  will  be  equally  blessed? 

“To  bind  by  force  twenty  millions  of  resentful  Koreans 
will  mean  not  only  loss  of  peace  forever  for  this  part  of  the 
Far  East,  but  also  will  increase  the  eve ry-gro wing  suspicion 
of  four  hundred  millions  of  Chinese — upon  whom  depends 
the  danger  or  safety  of  the  Far  East— besides  strengthening 
the  hatred  of  Japan.  From  this  all  the  rest  of  the  East  will 


declaration  of  independence. 


51 


suffer.  Today  Korean  independence  will  mean  not  only  daily 
life  and  happiness  for  us,  but  also  it  would  mean  Japan’s 
departure  from  an  evil  way  and  exaltation  to  the  place  of 
true  protector  of  the  East,  so  that  China,  too,  even  in  her 
dreams,  would  put  all  fear  of  Japan  aside.  This  thought 
comes  from  no  minor  resentment,  but  from  a large  hope  for 
the  future  welfare  and  blessing  of  mankind. 

‘‘A  new  era  wakes  before  our  eyes,  the  old  world  of  force 
is  gone,  and  the  new  world  of  righteousness  and  truth  is 
here.  Out  of  the  experience  and  travail  of  the  old  world 
arises  this  light  on  life’s  affairs.  The  insects  stifled  by  the 
foe  and  snow  of  winter  awake  at  this  same  time  with  the 
breezes  of  spring  and  the  soft  light  of  the  sun  upon  them. 

“It  is  the  day  of  the  restoration  of  all  things  on  the  full 
tide  of  which  we  set  forth,  without  delay  or  fear.  We  desire 
a full  measure  of  satisfaction  in  the  way  of  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness,  and  an  opportunity  to  develop  what  is 
in  us  for  the  glory  of  our  people. 

“We  awake  now  from  the  old  world  with  its  darkened 
conditions  in  full  determination  and  one  heart  and  one  mind, 
with  right  on  our  side,  along  with  the  forces  of  nature,  to  a 
new  life.  May  all  the  ancestors  to  the  thousands  and  ten 
thousand  generations  aid  us  from  within  and  all  the  force  of 
the  world  aid  us  from  without,  and  let  the  day  we  take  hold 
be  the  day  of  our  attainment.  In  this  hope  we  go  forward. 

THREE  ITEMS  OF  AGREEMENT 

“1.  This  work  of  ours  is  in  behalf  of  truth,  religion  and 
life,  undertaken  at  the  request  of  our  people,  in  order  to 
make  known  their  desire  for  liberty.  Let  no  violence  be 
done  to  anyone. 

“2.  Let  those  who  follow  us,  every  man,  all  the  time, 
every  hour,  show  forth  with  gladness  this  same  mind. 

“3.  Let  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in  order,  so  that 
our  behaviour  to  the  very  end  may  be  honorable  and  up- 
right.” 


52 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


The  4252nd  Year  of  the  Kingdom  of  Korea,  3d  Month 
Representatives  of  the  People. 

The  signatures  attached  to  the  document  are : 

Son  Byung  Hi,  Kil  Sun  Chu,  Yi  Pil  Chu,  Paik  Long  Sung, 
Kim  Won  Kyu,  Kim  Pyung  Cho,  Kim  Chang  Choon,  Kwon 
Dong  Chin,  Kwon  Byung  Duk,  Na  Long  Whan,  Na  In  Hup, 
Yang  Chun  Paik,  Yang  Han  Mook,  Lew  Yer  Dai,  Yi  Kop 
Sung,  Yi  Mung  Yong,  Yi  Seung  Hoon,  Yi  Chong  Hoon, 
Yi  Chong  11,  Lim  Yei  Whan,  Pak  Choon  Seung,  Pak  Hi  Do, 
Pak  Tong  Wan,  Sin  Hong  Sik,  Sin  Suk  Ku,  Oh  Sei  Chang, 
Oh  Wha  Young,  Chung  Choon  Su,  Choi  Sung  Mo,  Choi  In, 
Han  Yong  Woon,  Hong  Byung  Ki,  Hong  Ki  Cho. 


AIMS  AND  ASPIRATIONS  OF  THE  NEW 
KOREAN  REPUBLIC 

(1)  We  believe  in  government  which  derives  its  just 
power  from  the  governed.  Therefore,  the  government  must 
be  conducted  for  the  interest  of  the  people  it  governs. 

(2)  We  propose  to  have  a government  modeled  after  that 
of  America,  as  far  as  possible,  consistent  with  the  education 
of  the  masses.  For  the  next  decade  it  may  be  necessary  to 
have  more  centralized  power  in  the  government;  but  as  edu- 
cation of  the  people  improves,  and  as  they  have  more  experi- 
ence in  the  art  of  self-governing,  they  will  be  allowed  to 
participate  more  universally  in  the  governmental  affairs. 

(3)  However,  we  propose  to  give  universal  franchise  to 
elect  local  and  provincial  legislators,  and  the  provincial  legis- 
lators elect  the  representatives  to  the  National  Legislature. 
The  National  Legislators  will  have  co-ordinate  power  with 
the  Executive  branch  of  the  Government,  and  they  have  sole 
power  to  make  laws  of  the  nation,  and  are  solely  responsible 
to  the  people  whom  they  represent. 

(4)  The  Executive  branch  consists  of  President,  Vice- 
President  and  Cabinet  Officers,  who  carry  out  all  the  laws 
made  by  the  National  Legislature.  The  President  shall  be 
elected  by  the  members  of  the  National  Legislature;  and  the 
President  has  the  power  to  appoint  the  Cabinet  Ministers, 
Governors  of  Provinces  and  other  such  important  executive 
officials  of  the  Government,  including  envoys  to  foreign  coun- 
tries. He  has  the  power  to  make  treaties  with  foreign 
powers,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  upper  house  of  the 
National  Legislature.  The  President  and  his  Cabinet  are 
responsible  to  the  National  Legislature. 

(5)  We  believe  in  freedom  of  religion.  Any  religion  or 
doctrine  shall  be  freely  taught  and  preached  within  the  coun- 
try, provided  such  teaching  does  not  conflict  with  the  laws 
or  the  interest  of  the  nation. 

(6)  We  believe  in  free  commerce  with  all  nations  of  the 
world,  affording  the  citizens  and  subjects  of  all  treaty  powers 


54 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


equal  opportunity  and  protection  for  promoting  commerce 
and  industry  between  them  and  the  Korean  people. 

(7)  We  believe  in  education  of  the  people,  which  is  more 
important  than  any  other  governmental  activity. 

(8)  We  believe  in  modern  sanitary  improvements  under 
scientific  supervision,  as  the  health  of  the  people  is  one  of 
the  primary  considerations  of  those  who  govern. 

(9)  We  believe  in  free  speech  and  free  press.  In  fact, 
we  are  in  thorough  accord  with  the  principle  of  democracy, 
equal  opportunity,  sound  economic  policies,  free  intercourse 
with  the  nations  of  the  world,  making  conditions  of  life  of 
the  entire  people  most  favorable  for  unlimited  development. 

(10)  We  believe  in  liberty  of  action  in  all  matters,  pro- 
vided such  actions  or  utterances  do  not  interfere  with  the 
rights  of  other  people  or  conflict  with  the  laws  and  interests 
of  the  nation. 

Let  us  all  pledge  our  solemn  word  to  carry  out  these 
cardinal  points  to  the  best  of  our  ability,  as  long  as  there  is 
life  remaining  within  us. 


PROVISIONAL  CONSTITUTION 


By  the  will  of  God,  the  people  of  Korea,  both  within  and 
without  the  country,  have  united  in  a peaceful  declaration  of 
their  independence,  and  for  over  one  month  have  carried  on 
their  demonstrations  in  over  300  districts,  and  because  of 
their  faith  in  the  movement  they  have  by  their  representa- 
tives chosen  a Provisional  Government  to  carry  on  to  com- 
pletion this  independence  and  so  to  preserve  blessings  for  our 
children  and  grandchildren. 

The  Provisional  Government,  in  its  Council  of  State,  has 
decided  on  a Provisional  Constitution,  which  it  now  pro- 
claims. 

1.  The  Korean  Republic  shall  follow  republican  prin- 
ciples. 

2.  All  powers  of  State  shall  rest  with  the  Provisional 
Council  of  State  of  the  Provisional  Government. 

3.  There  shall  be  no  class  distinction  among  the  citizens 
of  the  Korean  Republic,  but  men  and  women,  noble  and  com- 
mon, rich  and  poor,  shall  have  equality. 

4.  The  citizens  of  the  Korean  Republic  shall  have  re- 
ligious liberty,  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  writing  and 
publication,  the  right  to  hold  public  meetings  and  form  social 
organizations  and  the  full  right  to  choose  their  dwellings  or 
change  their  abode. 

5.  The  citizens  of  the  Korean  Republic  shall  have  the 
right  to  vote  for  all  public  officials  or  to  be  elected  to  public 
office. 

6.  Citizens  will  be  subject  to  compulsory  education  and 
military  service  and  payment  of  taxes. 

7.  Since  by  the  will  of  God  the  Korean  Republic  has 
arisen  in  the  world  and  has  come  forward  as  a tribute  to 
the  world  peace  and  civilization,  for  this  reason  we  wish  to 
become  a member  of  the  League  of  Nations. 

8.  The  Korean  Republic  will  extend  benevolent  treatment 
to  the  former  Imperial  Family. 


56 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


9.  The  death  penalty,  corporal  punishment  and  public 
prostitution  will  be  abolished. 

10.  Within  one  year  of  the  recovery  of  our  land  the 
National  Congress  will  be  convened. 

Signed  by: 

The  Provisional  Secretary  of  State, 

And  the  Ministers  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
Home  Affairs, 
Justice. 

Finance, 

War, 

Communications. 

In  the  1st  Year  of  the  Korean  Republic,  4th  Month. 

The  following  are  six  principles  of  government : 

1.  We  proclaim  the  equality  of  the  people  and  the  State. 

2.  The  lives  and  property  of  foreigners  shall  be  re- 
spected. 

3.  All  political  offenders  shall  be  specially  pardoned. 

4.  We  will  observe  all  treaties  that  shall  be  made  with 
foreign  powers. 

5.  We  swear  to  stand  by  the  independence  of  Korea. 

6.  Those  who  disregard  the  orders  of  the  Provisional 
Government  will  be  regarded  as  enemies  of  the  State. 


OFFICIAL  PROCLAMATION 


Korea  proclaims  to  the  nations  of  the  world  that  the 
people  of  this  land,  with  a history  of  4,000  years,  have  now, 
in  this  age  of  world  progress,  asserted  the  independence  and 
liberty  of  their  nation. 

Although  the  Japanese  troops  have  overrun  our  country, 
as  the  Germans  did  Belgium,  yet  we  will  not  recognize  their 
control,  and  as  a people,  in  this  manner,  we  repudiate  their 
government  and  send  out  these  notifications. 

We,  the  liberty-loving  people  of  Korea,  having  declared 
our  independence  and  having  chosen  our  representatives  for 
a Provisional  Government,  through  them  make  this  an- 
nouncement. 

We  extend  our  most  cordial  sentiments  to  the  friendly 
nations  that  have  already  had  treaty  relations  with  our  land 
and  also  to  the  new  states  which  have  been  recently  formed 
upon  principles  of  humanity  and  justice. 

Provisional  Government  for  the 
New  Korean  Republic. 


A SAMPLE  OF  THE  METHODS  OF  JAPANESE  MILITARY  AUTOCRACY  IN  DEALING  WITH  LOYAL  KOREANS. 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE 


THE  CLAIM  OF  THE  KOREAN  PEOPLE 
AND  NATION 

FOR  LIBERATION  FROM  JAPAN  AND  FOR  THE 
RECONSTITUTION  OF  KOREA  AS  AN 
INDEPENDENT  STATE  TO  BE  EFFECTED  BY 
AND  THROUGH  THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE 
DECLARING  AS  NULL  AND  VOID 
OR  OTHERWISE  ABROGATING  THE  TREATY 
CONCLUDED  AT  SEOUL  ON  AUGUST  22,  1910, 
WHEREBY  JAPAN  PURPORTED 
TO  ANNEX  THE  EMPIRE  OF  KOREA 


Petition 


PARIS:  APRIL,  1919. 


60 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


KOREAN  DELEGATION 

TO  THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE 
IN  SESSION  AT  PARIS: 

THE  PETITION  of  the  KOREAN 
PEOPLE  AND  NATION  for  libe- 
ration from  Japan  and  for  the  recon- 
stitution of  Korea  as  an  independ- 
ent state 

RESPECTFULLY  SHEWETH : 

The  Korean  People  have  been  a nation  for  more  than 
4,200  years,  with  a settled  life  and  culture  and  with  their 
country  forming  one  of  the  historic  states  of  Asia.  During 
most  of  these  Forty-two  Centuries,  Korea  enjoyed  national 
independence. 

Korean  Independence  Recognized. 

2. — The  continued  existence  of  Korea  as  a separate  and 
sovereign  state  was  recognized  by  Japan,  the  United  States, 
Great  Britain  and  other  foreign  Powers  in  their  respective 
treaties  of  peace  and  commerce  concluded  with  the  Korean 
Government. 

In  the  Treaty  with  the  United  States,  signed  at  Seoul  on 
May  22,  1882,  it  was  expressly  agreed  that  “if  other  Powers 
deal  unjustly  or  oppressively  with  either  Government  the 
other  will  exert  their  good  offices,  on  being  informed  of  the 
case,  to  bring  about  an  amicable  arrangement,  thus  showing 
their  friendly  feelings.” 

In  the  Treaty  of  Shimonoseki,  signed  on  April  17,  1895, 
Japan  insisted  on  China’s  definite  recognition  of  the  “full 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


61 


and  complete  independence  and  autonomy  of  Korea.”  And 
in  the  first  Anglo- Japanese  agreement  of  alliance,  concluded 
on  January  30,  1902,  Japan  and  Great  Britain  affirmed  and 
substantially  guaranteed  the  independence  of  Korea.  Lastly, 
in  the  Treaty  of  Defensive  and  Offensive  Alliance  made 
between  the  Japanese  Government  and  the  Korean  Govern- 
ment in  1904,  Japan  specifically  guaranteed  the  independence 
and  integrity  of  Korea. 

Korean  Independence  as  an  International  Doctrine. 

3.  — These  treaties  not  only  affirmed  and  confirmed  the 
separate  existence  of  Korea  as  a sovereign  state,  but  they 
established,  it  is  submitted,  Korean  independence  on  the 
basis  of  an  international  authority  and  sanction  which  no 
single  Power  could  violate  without  subjecting  its  action  to 
eventual  revision  by  other  Powers. 

Japan's  Violation  of  Korean  Independence. 

4. — Such  a violation  of  Korean  independence  was  com- 
mitted by  Japan  when  the  Japanese  Government — by  acts  of 
fraud  and  force— compelled  the  conclusion  of  the  Treaty  of 
August  22,  1910,  whereby  the  then  Emperor  of  Korea  pur- 
ported to  cede  “completely  and  permanently  to  His  Majesty 
the  Emperor  of  Japan  all  rights  of  sovereignty  over  the 
whole  of  Korea,”  with  her  then  population  of  more  than 
Fifteen  Million  Koreans. 

The  Korean  Protest. 

5.  — Against  this  extinction  of  Korean  sovereignty  and  the 
incorporation  of  their  country  as  a province  of  Japan,  the 
Korean  people  and  nation  have  strenuously  protested  and 
do  still  protest. 

6.  — This  protest  is  renewed  and  is  strengthened  daily, 
owing  to  the  methods  applied  by  Japan  in  the  administra- 
tion of  Korea.  In  ruthlessness  and  efficiency  these  methods 


62 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


exceed  those  practised  by  Prussia  in  her  eastern  provinces, 
in  Schleswig-Holstein,  in  Alsace-Lorraine*. 

Not  only  in  name  but  in  reality,  Japan  is  determined  to 
turn  Korea  into  a Japanese  province.  And  she  is  trying  to 
do  this  by  a pitiless  attempt  tc  extirpate  the  great  roots  of 
patriotism — love  of  the  soil,  language  of  the  people  and  the 
history  of  the  nation — and  also  to  “control”  the  two  means 
which  might  render  futile  this  organized  attempt  to  de- 
stroy Korean  patriotism,  i.  e.,  education  and  wealth. 

Japanese  “Control”  of  Korean  Education  and  Wealth. 

7. - — Any  and  every  department  of  modern  education  cal- 
culated, if  pursued  beyond  a certain  point,  to  encourage  what 
Count  Terauchi — the  Japanese  proconsul  who  “annexed” 
Korea — calls  “dangerous  thoughts”  is  either  forbidden  or 
taught  in  an  emasculated  sense  in  the  schools  of  Korea  un- 
der Government  control.  And  the  Korean  student  is  abso- 
lutely prohibited  from  going  to  Europe  or  the  United  States 
to  seek  a modern  education,  even  at  his  or  her  expense. 

8,  — Nearly  every  wealthy  Korean  is  obliged  to  have  a Jap- 
anese overseer  at  his  house,  controlling  his  properties  and 


*“A  rigid  spy  system  is  inaugurated  (in  Korea).  Everyone  must  be 
registered  and  is  given  a number,  which  is  known  to  the  police. 
Every  time  he  leaves  his  village  or  town  he  must  register  at  the 
police  station  and  state  fully  the  business  he  intends  to  transact  and 
his  destination.  The  policeman  phones  to  this  place,  and  if  his  actions 
are  in  any  way  at  variance  with  his  report  he  is  liable  , to  arrest  and 
mistreatment.  A strict  classification  is  kept  on  the  basis  of  a man’s 
education,  influence,  position,  etc.  As  soon  as  a man  begins  to  show 
ability  or  qualities  of  leadership  he  is  put  in  class  ‘a’,  detectives  are 
set  on  his  trail,  and  from  thenceforth  he  becomes  a marked  man, 
hounded  wherever  he  goes.  Even  children  are  watched  or  bribed  for 
information.  If  a man  escapes  the  country  his  number  is  traced,  his 
family  or  relatives  arrested  and  perchance  tortured  until  they  reveal 
his  whereabouts.  A man  is  likely  to  disappear  any  day  and  perhaps 
not  be  heard  of  again.  It  is  a very  efficient  Prussiamsm  which  thus 
aims  to  crush  the  spirit  of  a people. 

“This  policy  is  cariied  out  in  the  educational  system  by  forbidding 
the  teaching  of  Koiean  history  or  geography  . . . by  excluding 

all  European  history  or  literature,  . . . . by  forbidding  any  Ko- 

rean student  to  go  abroad  for  an  education;  in  fact,  by  forbidding 
them  to  leave  the  country;  ...  by  forbidding  them  to  entertain 
or  express  Korean  ideas  or  aspirations.  One  student  was  put  in  jail 
for  three  months  and  fined  three  hundred  dollars  because  he  was 
caught  singing  the  Korean  national  anthem.” — From  a paper  recently 
published  in  the  United  States  by  J.  E.  Moore,  an  American  born  in 
Korea. 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


63 


finances.  And  Koreans  with  deposits  in  the  banks — which 
are  all  Japanese  institutions — cannot  withdraw  large  amounts 
at  one  time  without  disclosing  to  the  banks  the  purpose  or 
purposes  for  which  the  money  is  to  be  used. 

Japan  and  Christianity. 

9.  — Every  effort  is  made  by  the  Japanese  authorities — par- 
ticularly through  their  police  agents — to  discourage  and  ob- 
struct Christian  missionary  work  in  Korea  which  is  envisaged 
as  opposed  to  vital  Japanese  interests  in  the  peninsula. 

Is  not  the  gravest  indictment  of  Japan’s  work  in  Korea  to 
be  read  in  the  fact  that  Christianity  is  seriously  regarded  as 
a force  hostile  to  the  success  of  the  Japanese  system  of  gov- 
ernment in  the  country? 

Korea  for  the  Japanese. 

10.  — The  Japanese  authorities  claim  that  “reforms”  have 
been  introduced  into  Korea.  But  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
most  of  these  reforms,  valuable  as  they  are,  may  be  found 
in  a well-regulated  penal  colony  (“The  Korean  Conspiracy 
Case,”  New  York),  and  all  of  them  have  been  effected  or 
introduced  at  the  expense  of  the  Korean  taxpayer  in  the 
interest  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  Japanese  settler  for  whom 
the  Japanese  authorties  are  bent  on  making  Korea  an  at- 
tractive field  of  colonization. 

11.  — The  Japanese  rules  and  administers  Korea  in  the  spirit 
and  by  the  methods  of  a Master-Nation  or,  more  accurately, 
a Profiteer-Nation. 

Except  in  the  sense  that  cattle  or  slaves  must  be  taken 
care  of  if  they  are  to  be  of  any  value  to  their  owners,  the 
welfare  of  the  Korean  people  is  not  an  aim  of  government 
with  Japan. 

Japan  Against  the  World. 

12.  — In  addition  to  these  reasons  connected  directly  with 
the  fate  of  the  Korean  people,  the  vital  interests  of  the 
world — especially  the  Asiatic  interests  of  France  and  the 


64 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Asiatic  and  Pacific  interests  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States — demand  the  dis-annexation  of  Korea  and  the  libera- 
tion of  her  people  from  Japan. 

13.  — In  trade  and  commerce,  Japan  is  gradually  eliminat- 
ing the  Western  trader  and  merchant  in  Korea  and  trans- 
ferring to  the  exclusive  hands  of  her  own  people  tradal  inter- 
ests which  have  had  their  origin  in  the  series  of  treaties  of 
peace  and  commerce  concluded  between  Korea  and  the 
foreign  powers. 

In  this  elimination  of  Western  competition,  Japan  con- 
tinues true  to  that  instinct  for  exclusion  which,  in  the  past, 
found  expression  in  her  rigidly  guarded  isolation  and  which, 
today,  expresses  itself  in  the  menacing  attempt  to  Exclude 
Western  Influence  in  Far  Asia  through  the  application  of  a 
debased  Monroe  Doctrine  for  the  Far  East. 

Japan  s Continental  Policy. 

14.  — It  is,  however,  in  the  far-reaching  political  aims  of 
Japan — realizable  eventually  through  her  continued  annexa- 
tion of  Korea — that  France,  as  well  as  Great  Britain  and 
America,  must  be  vitally  interested. 

The  danger  to  the  non- Japanese  world,  including  especially 
the  three  Latin  and  Anglo-Saxon  powers,  lies  in  Japan’s  un- 
fettered prosecution  of  her  Continental  Policy. 

This  policy  aims,  first,  at  the  seizure  of  the  hegemony  of 
Asia  through  the  domination  and  control  of  the  man-power 
and  natural  resources  of  China — possible  by  the  Japanese 
possession  of  the  continental  point  d’appui  of  Korea — and, 
next,  at  the  mastery  of  the  Pacific  as  the  sole  means  of 
securing  unrestricted  entrance  for  the  Japanese  immigrant 
into  Australasia  and  the  United  States. 

The  Policy  in  Operation. 

15 —Japan’s  Continental  Policy  has  already  found  expres- 
sion— 

(a)  In  two  successful  wars  which  have  made  her  the  great- 
est military  power  in  Asia  in  much  the  same  way  that  Prus- 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


65 


sia’s  two  wars  made  her  the  greatest  military  power  in 
Europe ; 

(6)  In  the  annexation  of  Korea; 

(c)  In  the  gradual  substitution  of  Japanese  for  Chinese 
authority  in  South  Manchuria  and  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia; 

( d ) In  the  attempt  now  being  made  to  secure  from  the 
Peace  Conference  the  succession  of  Japan  to  German  hold- 
ings and  privileges  in  the  Chinese  province  of  Shantung, 
including  Kiaochow; 

( e ) In  the  growing  subjection  of  China,  with  her  incal- 
culable man-power  and  resources,  to  Japanese  domination  by 
and  through  the  same  set  of  methods  which  made  the  an- 
nexation of  Korea  a “political  necessity”;  and 

(/)  In  the  Japanese  possession  of  the  “South  Sea  Islands 
north  of  the  Equator,”  which  bring  Japan  nearly  two  thou- 
sand miles  closer  to  Australia  and  gives  the  Japanese  Navy 
a base  which  dominates,  practically,  the  entire  land-areas  of 
the  Pacific. 

The  Korean  Revolution. 

16. — The  protest  and  opposition  of  the  Korean  people  to 
Japanese  annexation  of  their  country  and  to  the  process  of 
political  extermination  applied  to  them  by  the  Mikado’s 
agents  has  now  expressed  itself  in  the  Korean  Revolution. 

On  the  1st  of  March,  at  1 p.  m.,  the  Korean  People  and 
Nation  declared  their  independence.  This  act  of  independ- 
ence was  formally  done  by  the  National  Independence  Union, 
composed  of  three  million  Koreans  representing  and  express- 
ing the  desire  and  will  of  18,700,000  Koreans  in  Korea  prop- 
er, in  China,  Siberia,  in  Hawaii  and  in  the  United  States. 

The  declaration  states:  “It  is  our  solemn  duty  to  secure 
the  right  of  free  and  perpetual  development  of  our  own  na- 
tional character,  adapting  ourselves  to  the  principles  of  the 
reconstruction  of  the  world — to  secure  our  independence,  to 
wipe  out  injuries,  get  rid  of  our  present  sufferings,  and  leave 
our  children  eternal  freedom  instead  of  a bitter  and  shame- 
ful inheritance.” 


66 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Progress  of  the  Revolution. 

17.  — The  Korean  Delegation — appointed  by  the  New  Ko- 
rean Young  Men’s  Society  to  which  are  affiliated  the  Korean 
National  Independence  Union  and  other  bodies  organized  in 
the  cause  of  Korean  independence — is  in  receipt  of  several 
cable  dispatches  reporting  the  progress  of  the  revolution  and 
the  national  movement  for  independence. 

A dispatch  from  the  Korean  National  Independence  Union 
received  in  Paris,  via  Shanghai,  on  April  7th,  instant,  reads 
in  part  as  follows : “On  March  26  we  held  grand  demonstra- 
tions at  Seoul.  Our  national  flags  were  flown  on  the  city 
hills.  The  Japanese  arrested  two  hundred  of  those  who  par- 
ticipated in  the  demonstrations.  There  were  casualties  on 
both  sides.  Samnam  (i.  e.  all  provinces  south  of  Seoul) 
are  uprising  every'  day.  Korean  demonstrations  are  taking 
place  in  Eastern  Siberia  and  Manchuria.” 

The  Korean  Republic. 

18.  — The  same  dispatch  reports  the  organization  of  a Pro- 
visional Government  of  Korea,  consisting  of  a President, 
Vice-President,  Secretary  of  State,  Minister  for  Home 
Affairs,  Minister  of  Finance,  Minister  of  Justice  and  Min- 
ister of  War. 

Among  those  included  in  the  Provisional  Government  are 
Prince  Pak  Yung-hio  and  Messrs.  Rhee  Symgman,  Ahn 
Chang  Ho  and  Li  Tong  Whi.  Prince  Pak  Yung-hio  is  one 
of  the  five  great  leaders  who  inaugurated  what  is  known  in 
Korean  history  as  the  movement  of  the  Progressive  Party  in 
1884.  He  was  the  chief  figure  among  the  Progressives  who, 
in  1894,  compelled  the  introduction  of  modern  reforms  into 
Korea.  He  was  at  one  time  Minister  for  Home  Affairs  be- 
fore the  annexation.  Rhee  Syngman  is  an  M.A.  of  Har- 
vard, U.  S.  A.,  and  Ph.  D.  of  Princeton,  U.  S.  A.  Since 
1894  he  has  been  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  old  Korean  Inde- 
pendence Club.  As  a political  worker  he  has  suffered  im- 
prisonment and  he  has  also  been  tortured.  Ahn  Chang  Ho 


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67 


is  the  founder  of  the  Sin  Min  Hueh  or  People’s  Society  and, 
since  1905,  has  been  a leader  of  young  Korean  nationalists. 
He  is  the  President  of  the  Korean  National  Association.  Li 
Tong  Whi  is  a former  major  in  the  old  Korean  Army  and  a 
recognized  leader  of  Korean  nationalists  in  Siberia  and  Man- 
churia. He  has  been  imprisoned  and  tortured  by  the  Jap- 
anese authorities. 

Japanese  Repression. 

19. — Another  dispatch  received  by  the  Korean  delegation 
on  April  10th  inst.,  states  that  “from  the  1st  of  March  up  to 
date,  active  demonstrations  of  the  Independence  movement 
have  been  very  well  conducted  all  over  Korea.  Representa- 
tives prefer  passive  revolution,  including  lecturing  and  dis- 
tribution of  manifestoes.  Girls  more  active.  Strikes  have 
occurred  in  enemy  (Japanese)  factories,  stores,  etc.  Our 
churches,  schools  and  stores  closed  everywhere.  Thirty- 
two  thousand  men  and  women  are  in  prison.  About  100,000 
have  been  injured,  including  old  people,  girls  and  children. 
Interior  traffic  communications  severed.  Terrible  outrages 
committed  by  enemy  (Japanese).  Missionaries  are  sending 
truth  to  world.” 

In  a further  dispatch  which  reached  the  Korean  delega- 
tion on  April  11th  inst.,  Japanese  atrocities  are  reported: 
“Japan  has  begun  massacring  in  Korea.  On  March  28  over 
1,000  unarmed  people  were  killed  during  a three-hour  demon- 
stration held  in  Seoul.  The  shooting,  beating  and  hooking 
( Pbayoneting)  of  people  are  in  merciless  progress  through- 
out Korea.  Churches,  schools  and  homes  of  leaders  have 
been  destroyed.  Women  are  being  stripped  naked  and  beaten 
before  crowds,  especially  female  members  of  leaders’  fam- 
ilies. The  imprisoned  are  being  tortured.  Doctors  are  for- 
bidden to  attend  to  the  wounded.  We  ask  urgently  aid  from 
Foreign  Red  Cross.  We  have  decided  to  fight  for  freedom 
until  last  Korean  falls.  We  solicit  help  in  the  name  of 
God.” 

Of  the  many  news  dispatches  on  the  subject  appearing  in 


68 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


the  American  and  the  European  press,  it  must  suffice  here  to 
quote  the  latest  from  the  Tokio  correspondent  of  the  London 
“Times.”  It  appeared  in  the  issue  of  the  London  paper  on 
April  17th  inst.,  under  the  caption  “Korea’s  Rights”:  “While 
it  is  recognized  that  there  can  be  only  one  outcome  of  the 
disturbances  in  Korea,  the  Government’s  decision  to  rein- 
force the  military  establishment  in  the  peninsula  evokes  uni- 
versal press  comment,  the  feature  of  which  is  the  recognition 
that  it  will  be  inevitable,  when  opportunity  occurs,  to  replace 
the  Military  Governor  by  a Civilian  Governor.  The  ‘Nichi- 
Nichi’  attributes  the  disturbances  chiefly  to  a mistaken  con- 
ception of  the  principle  of  self-determination,  also  to  the 
inimical  influence  of  missionaries.  The  ‘Jij i’  says  it  is  evi- 
dent that  many  reforms  are  necessary  in  Korea.  Another 
journal  dwells  on  the  fact  that  the  Koreans  are  not  an  in- 
ferior people.  * * *” 

Abrogation  of  the  Treaty  of  Annexation. 

20. — The  Korean  people  submit  that  the  Treaty  of  Annexa- 
tion of  August  22,  1910,  should  be  declared  Null  and  Void  or 
otherwise  abrogated  by  the  Peace  Conference  for  the  reasons 
set  forth  in  this  petition  and  further  elaborated  in  the  memo- 
randum hereto  attached  and  more  especially  for  the  reasons 
following : 

I.  — The  said  Treaty  of  annexation  was  conluded  in  cir- 
cumstances of  Fraud  and  Force  which  vitiated  its  validity  as 
a legal  and  international  document,  even  assuming  that  the 
then  Emperor  of  Korea  had  the  right  to  hand  over  to  “His 
Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Japan”  Fifteen  Million  Koreans  and 
a country  that  had  existed  as  a separate  and  sovereign  state 
for  more  than  4,200  years. 

II.  — The  Korean  people  and  nation  have  consistently  de- 
nied the  right  of  the  then  “puppet”  Emperor  of  Korea  to  deal 
with  them  in  terms  of  the  said  Treaty  of  Annexation.  Being 
men  and  not  cattle,  they  hold  that  their  consent  is  and  has 
been  an  essential  condition  to  the  validity  of  the  said  treaty. 
This  consent  has  never  been  given. 


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69 


III.  — That  said  Treaty  of  Annexation  was  and  is  a direct 
violation  by  Japan  of  the  International  guarantees  entered 
into  by  the  Japanese  Government  with  Korea  and  other 
Powers  regarding  Korean  independence  and  integrity*. 

IV.  — In  the  several  Treaties  concluded  between  Korea  and 
Japan  and  other  Powers,  and  by  Japan  with  China,  with 
Russia  and  with  Great  Britain,  regarding  Korea,  the  exist- 
ence of  the  latter  as  a separate  and  sovereign  state  is — as  to 
all  these  treaties — explicitly  recognized  and  its  political  inde- 
pendence and  territorial  integrity  is — as  to  some  of  them — 
also  explicitly  guaranteed  in  terms  establishing  the  same  on 
the  basis  of  a public  law  of  nations  which  no  single  Power — 
especially  Japan — could  violate  without  subjecting  its  action 
to  eventual  revision  by  the  Powers  assembled  in  an  inter- 
national congress  like  the  present  Peace  Conference. 

V.  — The  Peace  Conference  meets  in  order  to  secure  a set- 
tlement of  the  affairs  of  the  member-nations  according  to  the 
principles  expressed  in  President  Wilson’s  Fourteen  Points. 
The  principles  underlying  this  statement  of  views  is  defined 
by  the  President  in  his  message  to  Congress  on  January  8, 
1918,  as  "the  principle  of  justice  to  all  peoples  and  nation- 
alities and  their  right  to  live  on  equal  terms  of  liberty  and 
safety  with  one  another,  whether  they  be  strong  or  weak.” 

As  one  of  the  allied  and  associated  states  in  the  war, 
Japan  has  expressly  accepted  the  Fourteen  Points  with  their 
underlying  principle  of  justice.  Inasmuch  as  this  principle 
of  justice  is  clearly  violated  by  the  Mikado’s  continued  exer- 
cise of  “all  rights  of  sovereignty  over  the  whole  of  Korea” 
without  the  consent  and  against  the  wishes  of  the  Korean 
People  and  Nation,  it  becomes  the  right  and  the  duty  of  the 

*The  Japan-Korean  treaty  of  February  26  or  27,  1876,  states  in  tbe 
first  article  “Chosen  being  an  independent  state  enjoys  the  same  sov- 
ereign rights  as  does  Japan.” 

In  the  Japan-Russian  protocol  of  April  25,  1898,  it  is  stipulated  in 
article  I that  the  “Imperial  Governments  of  Japan  and  Russia  dcfin- 
tively  recognize  the  sovereignty  and  entire  independence  of  Korea,  and 
mutually  engage  to  refrain  from  all  direct  interference  in  the  internal 
affairs  of  that  country.” 

The  Japan-Korean  protocol  of  February  23,  1904,  provides  (art.  5) 
that  the  “Imperial  Government  of  Japan  definitively  guarantees  the 
independence  and  territorial  integrity  cf  the  Korean  Empire.” 


70 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Peace  Conference  to  declare  the  nullification  or  otherwise 
decree  the  abrogation  of  the  aforesaid  Treaty  of  Annexation. 

VI. — In  virtue  of  rights  founded  in  International  Law  and 
of  the  New  Justice  which  is  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  nations, 
the  Korean  People  have  a just  claim  for  the  Reconstruction 
of  Korea  as  an  Independent  State  unless,  indeed,  they  are  to 
be  excluded  from  the  scope  of  the  principles  which  have 
already  found  expression  in  the  reconstitution  of  Poland 
after  almost  one  and  a half  centuries  of  partitions  and  an- 
nexations and  in  the  dis-annexation  of  Alsace-Lorraine  after 
nearly  half  a century  of  Prussian  rule. 

It  is  less  than  ten  years  since  Japan  effected  the  annexa- 
tion of  Korea.  And  the  fact  that  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
did  not  find  Japan  an  ally  of  the  Central  Powers — a political 
combination  that  had  always  been  envisaged  by  the  German- 
trained  advisers  of  the  Mikado — is  no  reason  why  the 
Korean  People  should  be  suffered  by  the  Peace  Conference 
to  continue  to  live  under  a system  of  military  government 
which  is  a denial  of  every  principle  for  which  men  have 
lately  died  on  the  soil  of  France. 

This  petition  is  presented  in  the  name  and  on  behalf  of  the 
Provisional  Republican  Government  of  Korea  and  of  the 
eighteen  million  seven  hundred  thousand  Koreans  living  in 
Korea  proper,  in  China,  Siberia,  Hawaii,  the  United  States 
and  elsewhere  as  well  as  of  the  five  thousand  and  more 
Koreans  who  fought  for  the  Allied  cause  on  the  Eastern 
Front  before  the  treaty  of  Brest-Litovsk — in  the  aggregate 
forming  and  constituting  the  Korean  People  and  Nation — 
by  the  undersigned  John  Kiusic  Soho  Kimm,  the  duly  ac- 
credited member  of  the  Korean  Delegation  appointed  by  the 
New  Korean  Young  Men’s  Society,  etc.,  etc. 

J.  KIUSIC  S.  KIMM, 

Delegate  of  New  Korean  Young  Men’s  Society, 
Delegate  of  the  Korean  National  Association, 
Delegate  of  the  Provisional  Government  of  the 
Korean  Republic,  Etc.,  Etc.,  Etc. 


KOREAN  DELEGATION 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE 


THE  CLAIM  OF  THE  KOREAN  PEOPLE 
AND  NATION 

FOR  LIBERATION  FROM  JAPAN 
AND  FOR  THE  RECONSTITUTION 
OF  KOREA  AS  AN  INDEPENDENT  STATE 


Memorandum 


PARIS:  APRIL,  1919. 


72 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


THE  CLAIM  OF  THE  KOREAN  PEOPLE 
AND  NATION  FOR  LIBERATION  FROM  JAPAN 
AND  FOR  THE  RECONSTITUTION  OF  KOREA 
AS  AN  INDEPENDENT  STATE 

I. 

The  Claim  of  Korea. 

The  Korean  People  and  Nation  hereby  petition  the  Peace 
Conference  to  declare  as  null  and  void  the  Treaty  of  August 
22,  1910  (a),  whereby  one  Korean — the  then  Emperor  of 
Korea — purported,  under  Japanese  coercion,  to  cede  “com- 
pletely and  permanently  to  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of 
Japan  all  rights  of  sovereignty  over  the  whole  of  Korea” 
with  her  then  population  of  over  Fifteen  Million  Koreans. 

It  is  submitted  that  the  present  claim  deals  with  a matter 
in  respect  of  which  the  Peace  Conference  has  the  right  and 
authority  to  take  action. 

The  Conference  meets  in  order  to  secure  a settlement  of 
the  affairs  of  the  member-nations  in  terms  of  the  principles 
set  forth  in  President  Wilson’s  Fourteen  Points.  The  “evi- 
dent principle”  running  through  the  “whole  program”  is 
defined  by  the  President  in  his  message  to  Congress  on 
January  8,  1918,  as  “the  principle  of  justice  to  all  peoples 
and  nationalities,  and  their  right  to  live  on  equal  terms  of 
liberty  and  safety  with  one  another,  whether  they  be  strong 
or  weak.” 

As  one  of  the  Allied  and  Associated  States,  Japan  has  ex- 
pressly accepted  the  Fourteen  Points,  with  their  underlying 
principle  of  justice,  as  the  “foundation”  of  the  “structure 
of  international  justice”  to  be  established  by  the  Peace  Con- 
ference. 

Inasmuch  as  this  principle  of  justice  is  obviously  violated 
by  the  Mikado’s  continued  exercise  of  “all  rights  of  sover- 
eignty over  the  whole  of  Korea”  without  the  consent  and 


(a)  See  Appendix  No.  1. 


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73 


against  the  wishes  of  the  Korean  People  and  Nation,  it  is  at 
once  the  right  and  :he  duty  of  the  Peace  Conference  to 
declare  the  nullification  of  the  aforesaid  Treaty  of  August 
22,  1910. 

II. 

4,200  Years  of  National  Life. 

The  Korean  people  were  a nation,  with  a language  and  a 
culture  of  their  own,  before  Japan  ceased  to  be  a land  of 
warring  tribes  and  unlettered  people.  Indeed,  it  is  as  much 
to  Korea  as  to  China — the  other  historic  state  now  under 
deadly  assault  by  Japan — that  the  Japanese  owe  not  a little 
of  their  cultural  development  and  the  thoughts  and  ideals 
which  have  nourished  their  mind  and  enabled  them  to  cap- 
ture greatness. 

The  nationhood  of  the  Korean  People  had  lasted  for  more 
than  4,200  years  when  Japan  consummated  her  work  in 
Korea  by  the  Treaty  of  August  22,  1910.  And  save  for  an 
intervening  period  when  their  liberties  were  assailed  the 
Koreans  lived  through  these  forty-two  centuries  as  an  in- 
dependent nation,  their  country  forming  one  of  the  separate 
states  of  Asia. 


III. 

The  Independence  of  Korea. 

The  continued  existence  of  Korea  as  a separate  and 
sovereign  state  was  affirmed  and  recognized  by  Japan  in 
the  Treaty  of  Peace  and  Amity  concluded  between  the 
Korean  Government  and  the  Japanese  Government  at  Seoul 
on  February  27,  1876. 

The  independence  of  Korea  as  the  “Kingdom  of  Chosen” 
was  recognized  by  the  United  States  of  America  in  the 
Treaty  of  “Peace,  Amity,  Commerce  and  Navigation”  con- 
cluded with  the  Korean  Government  on  May  22,  1882,  which 
contained  the  important  clause  that  “if  other  Powers  deal 
unjustly  or  oppressively  with  either  Government  the  other 


74 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


will  exert  their  good  offices,  on  being  informed  of  the  case, 
to  bring  about  an  amicable  arrangement,  thus  showing  their 
friendly  feelings.” 

Korean  sovereignty  was  also  recognized  and  admitted  by 
Great  Britain  and  other  Powers  in  their  respective  Treaties 
of  peace  and  commerce  concluded  with  the  Korean  Govern- 
ment. 

In  the  Treaty  of  Shimonoseki,  signed  on  April  17,  1895, 
Japan  compelled  China  definitely  to  recognize  the  “full  and 
complete  independence  and  autonomy  of  Korea.” 

The  independence  of  Korea  was  also  affirmed  and  sub- 
stantially guaranteed  by  Japan  and  Great  Britain  in  the  first 
Anglo- Japanese  agreement  of  alliance  concluded  on  Janu- 
ary 30,  1902. 

And,  lastly,  in  a Treaty  of  Defensive  and  Offensive  Alli- 
ance concluded  between  the  Japanese  Government  and  the 
Korean  Government  in  1904,  Japan  guaranteed  the  independ- 
ence of  Korea  and  the  latter  guaranteed  material  aid  to 
Japan  in  the  later  prosecution  of  the  war  against  Russia. 

IV. 

“Transactions  in  Freedom 

It  was  to  protect  and  maintain  the  independence  and  terri- 
torial integrity  of  Korea  that  Japan  professed  to  have  fought 
her  first  continental  wars  against  China  in  1894-5. 

And  a similar  purpose  was  alleged  when  Japan  challenged 
and  defeated  the  Tsardom  in  1904-5. 

That  Japan  emerged  out  of  these  two  wars  with  an  inter- 
national prestige  which  no  mere  military  victories  could 
have  won  her  is  mainly  to  be  assigned  to  the  knightly 
gesture  expressed  in  what  seemed  in  the  eyes  of  men  as 
high  transactions  in  freedom. 

V. 

Prussia  and  Japan. 

The  falseness  of  it  all  is  now  plain.  And  what  must  be 
termed  the  bad  faith  and  duplicity  of  Japan  cannot  fail  to 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


75 


arrest  the  attention  of  a world  already  outraged  by  the  un- 
moral acts  of  a race  whose  home  is  the  “spiritual  home”  of 
the  leaders  of  Japan. 

Like  Prussia  in  her  two  wars  against  Austria  and  against 
France,  Japan  “prepared”  for  her  two  wars  against  China 
and  against  Russia;  and  as  Prussia  became  the  leading  mili- 
tary Power  in  Europe,  so  Japan  has  become  the  leading 
military  Power  in  Asia  as  a result  of  her  “defensive”  wars 
against  the  two  countries  that  stood  in  the  path  of  her  con- 
tinental ambitions.  And  in  quite  a true  sense,  it  may  be 
said  that  Prussia  and  Japan  are  the  two  modern  Powers 
which  have  profited  greatly  from  the  business  of  war. 

If  there  be  any  difference  between  these  two  predatory 
Powers,  the  same  lies  in  the  deeper  immorality  of  Japan. 
Prussia  conceived,  prepared  and  won  her  two  wars  in  order 
to  forge  an  Imperial  Germany  as  an  instrument  of  European 
hegemony.  She  did  not  load  her  crime  with  the  death  of  a 
nation  whose  independence  and  integrity  had  been  guaran- 
teed by  her  in  solemn  treaties.  Nor  did  she  vulgarize  her 
great  sin  by  meanly  lying  to  the  world  and  representing  her 
policy  of  plunder  and  aggrandizement  in  the  sense  of 
knightly  action  undertaken  for  the  protection  of  an  en- 
dangered people. 

All  this  and  more  Japan  has  done. 

VI. 


The  Protectorate  of  Korea. 

Within  a few  months  of  the  last  of  the  Treaties  in  which 
Japan  guaranteed  the  perpetual  independence  and  integrity 
of  Korea,  the  Treaty  of  Portsmouth  was  concluded  in  which 
Japan  compelled  Russia  to  acknowledge  that  “Japan  possesses 
in  Korea  paramount  political,  military  and  economical  in- 
terests” and  to  “engage  neither  to  obstruct  nor  interfere  with 
the  measures  of  guidance,  protection  and  control  which  the 
Imperial  Government  of  Japan  may  find  it  necessary  to 
take  in  Korea.” 


76 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Three  weeks  * later — i.  e.,  on  September  27,  1905 — the 
second  Treaty  of  Alliance  between  Japan  and  Great  Britain 
was  published.  The  independence  of  Korea,  which  was 
expressly  recognized  in  the  first  Anglo- Japanese  agreement, 
was  significantly  omitted  in  this  renewal  of  the  alliance. 

This  sinister  omission  was  quickly  followed,  twenty  days 
later,  by  the  conclusion  of  the  Treaty  subjecting  Korea  to 
the  protectorate  of  Japan.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  this  trans- 
action is  without  parallel  in  civilized  history.  An  account 
of  the  crime  can  be  read  in  the  pages  of  McKenzie’s 
“Tragedy  of  Korea”  and  in  the  “Passing  of  Korea,”  by 
Homer  B.  Hulbert. 

The  Treaty  of  Portsmouth  was  hardly  signed  when  the 
Marquis  Ito  arrived  at  Seoul  and  instantly  set  about  to 
impose  on  Korea  “measures  of  guidance,  protection  and 
control.”  The  story  reads  like  some  devilish  episode  in  the 
days  when  Europe  lay  in  darkness. 

Ito — “the  Bismarck  of  Japan” — packed  the  streets  of  Seoul 
with  Japanese  soldiers,  surrounded  the  Palace  with  a cordon 
of  troops  and  forced  the  distraught  Emperor  and  his  Min- 
isters, literally  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  to  sign  the  in- 
famous Treaty  of  Seoul.  But  despite  all  this  coercion,  the 
Treaty  was  signed  by  neither  the  Emperor’s  Prime  Minister 
nor  his  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs.  And  the  Treaty  was 
vitiated  by  the  non-affixion  of  the  great  seal  of  the  State 
Council  and  of  that  of  the  Foreign  Office.  Even  under  force, 
the  great  seal  was  not  produced;  and  like  a gesture  of 
despair,  the  seal  of  the  Foreign  Office  was  flung  into  a lotus 
pond  just  as  the  Ministers  were  being  driven  into  the  Coun- 
cil Chamber  by  armed  Japanese. 

The  history  of  Korea  during  the  five  years  of  the  Pro- 
tectorate is  a record  of  deeds  of  fraud  and  terrorism  pos- 
sible only  in  the  case  of  a Power  like  Japan  whose  soul  is 
mediaeval  but  whose  methods  are  Prussian  in  their  ruth- 
lessness and  efficiency.  It  is  the  record  of  a scientific  bar- 
barism applied  to  the  work  of  stabbing  a nation  to  death. 


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77 


VII. 

The  Annexation  of  Korea. 

And  death  soon  came  to  Korea.  In  the  words  of  a 
French  writer  “le  Japon  couronnait  son  ceuvre  en  Coree”  in 
the  Treaty  done  at  Seoul  on  August  22,  1910,  which  pur- 
ported to  hand  over  to  “His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Japan” 
an  ancient  Kingdom  with  its  population  of  over  fifteen  mil- 
lion, as  if  cattle — not  men — were  under  traffic. 

Against  this  extinction  of  Korean  sovereignty  and  the 
incorporation  of  their  country  as  a province  of  Japan,  the 
Korean  People  and  Nation  have  strenuously  protested  and 
do  still  protest. 

VIII. 

J apanization  and  Prussianization. 

This  protest  is  founded  not  only  on  the  forcible  destruc- 
tion of  Korean  liberties  but  on  the  fiercer  application,  by 
Japan  in  Korea,  of  the  principles  and  methods  practiced  by 
the  Tsardom  in  Finland  and  in  Russian  Poland  and  by  the 
German  teachers  of  Japan  in  the  Eastern  Provinces,  in 
Schleswig-Holstein  and  in  Alsace-Lorraine  as  well  as  by 
the  unspeakable  Turk  in  Armenia. 

The  political  cruelties  involved  in  the  Prussianization  of 
the  Poles  in  the  Eastern  Provinces,  of  the  Danes  in  Schles- 
wig and  of  the  French  in  Alsace-Lorraine  are  surpassed  by 
the  political  enormities  accompanying  the  Japanization  of 
Korea. 

Although  fundamental  human  instincts  and  the  barrier  of 
geography  oppose  her  work  in  Korea,  Japan  is  determined 
to  make  the  country,  not  only  in  name  but  in  reality,  a 
Japanese  province.  She  is  trying  to  do  this  by  a pitiless  at- 
tempt to  extirpate  the  great  roots  of  patriotism ; love  of  the 
soil,  language  of  the  people  and  the  history  of  the  country. 
And  she  is  also  “controlling”  the  two  means  which  might 
render  futile  this  organized  attempt  to  extinguish  the  light 
of  patriotism  in  Korea — education  and  wealth. 


78 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


IX. 

Expropriation  of  Korean  Landowners. 

Korean  ownership  of  land  binds  Korean  hearts  to  the 
ancient  soil  of  Korea  and  is  therefore  a vigorous  "root”  of 
Korean  patriotism.  This  ownership  of  land  by  the  Korean 
farmer  and  peasant  prevents  also  the  success  of  Japanese 
colonization  in  Korea,  the  best  arable  lands  of  the  country 
being  naturally  in  the  hands  of  the  Korean  agriculturists. 
For  this  double  reason,  the  expropriation  of  the  Korean 
landowner  is  a cardinal  aim  of  Japanese  policy  in  Korea. 

Accordingly,  a company  has  been  organized  by  direction 
of  the  Japanese  Government  and  is  supported  by  an  annual 
subsidy  of  $250,000  from  the  Imperial  Treasury.  According 
to  an  article  in  the  “New  York  Times”  of  January  26,  1919, 
the  purpose  of  the  company  “is  to  colonize  Korea  with 
Japanese  who  are  unable  to  make  a living  in  Japan  proper. 
A Japanese  emigrant  receives  free  transportation  to  Korea 
and  is  provided  with  a home  and  a piece  of  land,  together 
with  implements  and  provisions  . . . the  colonization 

company  sought  to  buy  the  lands  of  the  Korean  farmers. 
There  are  eighty  thousand  square  miles  of  land  in  Korea, 
supporting  a population  of  fifteen  millions,  mostly  agri- 
culturists, and  these  natives  declined  to  part  with  their 
heritage.” 

“Here  was  where  the  aid  of  the  Japanese  Government,” 
the  article  continues,  “was  besought  and  secured,  and  the 
manner  in  which  the  solution  of  the  problem  was  obtained 
was  peculiarly  Oriental  in  its  subtlety.  In  Korea  all  the 
financial  machinery  centers  in  the  Bank  of  Chosen,  controlled 
by  the  Government  and  located  at  Seoul,  the  capital.  Through 
its  branches  the  powerful  financial  institution,  corresponding 
to  the  Bank  of  England  or  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States 
or  the  Bank  of  France,  perhaps,  called  in  all  the  specie  in 
the  country,  thus  making,  as  far  as  a circulating  medium 
was  concerned,  the  land  practically  valueless.  In  order  to 
pay  taxes  and  to  obtain  necessaries  of  life  the  Korean  must 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


79 


have  cash,  and  in  order  to  get  it  he  must  sell  his  land. 
Land  values  fell  rapidly,  and  in  some  instances  land  was 
purchased  by  the  agents  of  the  Bank  of  Chosen  for  one-fifth 
of  its  former  valuation.” 

“More  than  one-fifth  of  the  richest  lands  in  Korea,”  the 
article  adds,  “are  in  the  hands  of  the  Japanese  immigrants 
who  have  been  sent  over  through  the  operation  of  this 
scheme.” 


X. 

Banning  the  Korean  Language  and  History. 

A systematic  attempt  is  being  made  to  replace  the  Korean 
by  the  Japanese  language.  In  the  schools  Korean  children 
are  compelled  to  salute  and  greet  their  own  Korean  teachers 
in  the  Japanese  language;  and  in  the  law  courts,  the  judges 
are  Japanese  and  the  entire  proceedings  are  conducted  in 
the  Japanese  language  with  the  result  that  the  Korean  liti- 
gant generally  fails  to  understand  what  transpires,  the  official 
interpretation  of  the  trial  being  always  imperfect. 

The  teaching  of  Korean  history  is  prohibited.  And  im- 
prisonment, torture,  banishment  or  worse  might  be  the 
penalty  if  some  Korean  should  be  tempted  to  recite  to 
children  of  the  soil  a traditional  story  or  song  or  some 
folklore  telling  how  men  fought  and  died  for  Korea  in 
other  days. 


XI. 

“Controlling”  Korean  Education. 

It  is  Japan’s  “control”  of  the  education  of  the  Korean 
people  which  strikingly  reveals  the  “egoism”  of  her  policy 
in  the  Peninsula. 

Korea  has  been  known  as  a land  of  scholars.  And  just  as 
some  countries  may  be  said,  broadly,  to  specialize  in  some 
particular  sphere  of  learning  and  culture,  so  Korea  in  the 
past  “specialized”  in  scholarship.  The  Italian,  for  instance, 
loves  not  song  and  music  more  than  doth  the  cultured 


80 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Korean  love  the  things  of  the  scholar.  He  is  an  artist  in 
scholarship. 

But  to  be  a scholar,  one  must  be  educated.  An  educated 
Korean,  however,  is  a unit  of  protest  and  resistance  against 
Japanese  tyranny  in  Korea,  since  education — particularly 
modern  education — breeds  thoughts  and  ideals  that  deny 
the  right  of  one  nation  holding  another  nation  in  political 
serfage. 

Therefore,  not  only  is  the  teaching  of  Korean  history  pro- 
hibited in  Korean  schools,  but  any  and  every  department  of 
Western  learning  calculated,  if  pursued  beyond  a certain 
point,  to  encourage  what  Count  Terauchi — the  Japanese  pro- 
consul  who  “annexed”  Korea — calls  “dangerous  thoughts,” 
is  either  forbidden  or  taught  in  an  emasculated  sense. 

This  policy  of  a “limited  education”  explains  why  the 
Korean  student  is  denied  free  access  to  the  road  to  higher 
learning  in  arts,  sciences,  laws,  politics,  economics  and  in- 
dustries and  is  also  absolutely  prohibited  from  going  to 
Europe  or  the  United  States  to  seek  a Western  or  modern 
education,  even  at  his  or  her  own  expense. 

This  same  policy  also  explains  the  forcible  suppression  of 
360  Christian  schools  and  hundreds  of  other  private  insti- 
tutions in  Korea.  It  further  explains  the  following  statistics 
published  in  the  report  of  the  Government-General  in  Korea 
for  the  year  ending  1917. 

For  a population  of  16,648,129  Koreans,  the  Japanese  au- 
thorities established  schools  at  which  only  86,410  Korean 


pupils  were  being  taught  as  follows : 

441  Common  or  Primary  Schools 81,845  pupils 

7 Higher  Common  Schools  1,791 

74  Elementary  Schools  of  Agriculture, 

Commerce  and  Industry  2,029  ” 

1 Law  School  138 

1 Medical  School  253 

1 Industrial  School  282 

1 School  of  Agriculture  and  Forestry  72 


totaling  526  schools  of  all  grades,  attended  by  86,410  pupils. 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


81 


Whereas  for  a Japanese  immigrant  population  of  320,938, 
the  authorities  established  367  special  Japanese  schools  of  all 
grades,  which  were  attended  by  42,467  Japanese  pupils  as 
follows : 


342  Primary  Schools  37,911  pupils 

3 Middle  Schools  1,478  ’’ 

10  Girls’  High  Schools  (public) 1,648  ” 

7 Commercial  Colleges  899  ” 

1 Colonial  School  of  the  Oriental  De- 
velopment Company  18  ” 

4 Private  Schools,  Commercial  and 

Technical  513  ” 


The  foregoing  facts  justify  the  following  statement  of 
Japan’s  educational  policy  in  Korea,  which  has  appeared  in 
the  American  press  and  stands  uncontradicted:  “Under 

Japanese  rule  all  national  aspirations  [in  Korea]  are  opposed 
and  measures  are  taken  to  prevent  the  development  of 
patriotism.  This  is  done  systematically,  in  many  different 
ways.  One  of  the  greatest  and  most  effective  agencies  used 
by  Japan  to  this  end  is  the  stifling  of  higher  education  and 
the  limitations  placed  upon  the  schools.  Korean  history 
cannot  be  taught  and  after  the  student  has  advanced  a little 
way  he  must  stop  school  altogether  . . 

XII. 

“Controlling”  Korean  Wealth. 

Nearly  every  wealthy  Korean  is  obliged  to  have  a Japanese 
overseer  at  his  house,  controlling  his  properties  and  finances. 

Koreans  with  deposits  in  the  banks — which  are  all  Japanese 
institutions — cannot  withdraw  large  amounts  at  one  time 
without  disclosing  to  the  banks  the  purpose  or  purposes  for 
which  the  money  is  to  be  used. 


82 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


XIII. 

The  Korean  Kitchen  Knife. 

Koreans  are  generally  prohibited  the  use  of  firearms  or 
having  the  same  in  any  shape  or  form  in  their  possession. 

And  it  is  not  a little  interesting  to  note  that  an  American 
investigator,  in  the  course  of  his  inquiries  into  the  state  of 
Korea  under  the  Japanese,  found  that  no  family  in  some 
places  was  permitted  to  own  the  Korean  kitchen  knife  which 
has  been  in  common  use  from  time  immemorial.  One  such 
knife  had  to  be  shared  by  five  or  six  families  and,  when  not 
in  use,  it  had  to  be  hung  at  a spot  in  full  view  of  the  beat 
of  a Japanese  gendarme.  The  report  of  this  American  in- 
vestigator has  not  been  published  owing  to  the  official  view 
regarding  the  inexpediency  of  its  publication. 

XIV. 

Japan’s  Hostility  to  Christianity. 

In  the  belief  that  Christianity  breeds  a spirit  of  self- 
respect  inconsistent  with  the  stale  of  submission  demanded 
by  Japanese  policy  in  Korea,  the  Mikado’s  government  has 
been  envisaging  the  work  of  the  Christian  Missions  in  the 
country  as  opposed  to  vital  Japanese  interests.  For  this 
reason  every  effort  is  made  by  the  Japanese  authorities — 
particularly  through  their  police  agents — to  discourage  and 
obstruct  Christian  missionary  work  in  Korea. 

A signal  instance  of  this  official  Japanese  hostility  to 
Christianity  in  Korea  is  afforded  by  the  cruel  persecution 
of  Korean  Christians  involved  in  what  is  known  as  “The 
Korean  Conspiracy  Case”  (b). 

Is  not  the  gravest  indictment  of  Japan’s  work  in  Korea  to 
be  read  in  the  fact  that  Christianity  is  seriously  regarded  as 
a force  hostile  to  the  success  of  the  Japanese  system  of 
government  in  the  country ? 


(b)  See  Appendix  No.  2. 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


83 


XV. 

Korea  as  “One  Big  Fortress 

With  a gesture  of  achievement  Japan  points  to  the  mate- 
rial improvements  effected  by  her  in  Korea.  She  has  built 
railroads  that  extend  beyond  the  frontier  and  penetrate  into 
South  Manchuria,  which  is  already  within  the  grip  of  the 
Korean  railway  system.  She  has  constructed  highways  and 
streets  and  set  up  imposing  modern  buildings  for  the  housing 
of  the  Japanese  army  of  officials  “running”  the  country.  And 
no  doubt  the  sanitary  condition  of  certain  urban  centers  has 
been  improved. 

About  all  this  work  of  “improvement  and  progress”  in  the 
material  life  of  Korea,  you  can  read — every  twelvemonth — 
in  the  splendidly  illustrated  pages  of  the  “Annual  Report” 
issued  by  the  “Government-General  of  Chosen  (Korea).” 
No  expense  seems  to  be  spared  in  the  preparation  and  pro- 
duction of  this  annual  publication.  It  is  reckoned  among  the 
chief  weapons  of  Japanese  propaganda  abroad. 

But  in  spite  of  the  “reforms”  yearly  listed  in  the  “Annual 
Report,”  the  following  arraignment  of  Japan’s  policy  in 
Korea  continues  true  and  unanswerable.  It  is  from  a lead- 
ing article  in  the  “Shin  Nippon,”  a Japanese  newspaper, 
which  had  the  courage  to  criticize  the  Japanese  authorities 
in  connection  with  the  “Korean  Conspiracy  Case”: 

“Count  Terauchi  is  trying  by  every  means  to  crush  the 
rising  of  the  native  Koreans  against  his  administration, 
even  at  the  expense  of  his  countrymen’s  interest  in  the 
peninsula.  His  press  censorship,  espionage  policy,  and 
factory  legislation  were  all  due  to  his  fear  of  a rising  of 
the  Koreans.  . . . The  Governor-General’s  desire  is 
to  make  the  peninsula  one  big  fortress,  and  he  seems  to 
regard  all  those  engaged  in  industrial  or  commercial 
work  in  Korea  as  mere  camp  followers  within  the  walls 
of  the  barracks.” 

It  is  also  well  to  remember  that  “most  of  these  reforms, 


84 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


valuable  as  they  are,  may  be  found  in  a well-regulated  penal 
colony”  (c)  and  that  all  of  them  have  been  effected  or  intro- 
duced at  the  expense  of  the  Korean  taxpayer  in  the  interest 
and  for  the  benefit  of  the  Japanese  Settler  for  whom  the 
Japanese  authorities  desire  to  make  Korea  an  attractive  field 
of  colonization. 

XVI. 

Anglo-Saxon  Work  in  Asia. 

These  are  only  a few  of  the  ruthless  facts  featuring  the 
work  of  Japan  in  Korea.  In  aim  and  spirit,  as  well  as  in 
methods,  this  work  differs  greatly  from  the  labors  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  workers  in  Asia. 

In  India  and  Further  India,  the  Englishman  today  rules  in 
the  interest  of  the  native.  He  has  committed  mistakes,  and, 
maybe,  he  still  blunders.  But  he  administers  these  great 
regions  of  Asia  as  a trust  and  in  the  spirit  of  a trustee. 

It  is,  however,  in  the  Philippines  that  the  work  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  as  a trustee-nation  is  seen  in  terms  unobscured 
by  what  may  be  called  the  ambiguities  of  imperialism.  Here, 
the  American  has  not  been  satisfied  to  work  as  a trustee  for 
an  indefinite  period.  He  has  educated  the  Filipino  not  only 
to  assist  but  eventually  to  replace  him  in  the  government  of 
the  country. 

And  late  advices  from  Washington,  D.  C.,  indicate  that  the 
American  is  already  viewing  the  independence  of  the  Philip- 
pines as  a necessary  term  of  the  international  settlement 
which  is  to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy. 

XVII. 

The  Policy  of  the  Prize-Pig. 

But  in  Korea,  the  Japanese  rules  and  administers  the 
country  in  the  spirit  and  by  the  methods  of  a Master-Nation 
or,  more  accurate,  a Profiteer-Nation. 

Except  in  the  sense  that  cattle  or  slaves  must  be  taken 

(c)  “The  Korean  Conspiracy  Case,”  by  Arthur  Judson  Brown,  New 
York. 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


85 


care  if  of  they  are  to  be  of  value  to  their  owner,  the  wel- 
fare of  the  Korean  people  is  not  an  aim  of  government  with 
Japan. 

The  “improvements”  loudly  advertised  in  the  annual  re- 
ports of  the  Korean  Government-General  are  made  either 
for  the  encouragement  of  Japanese  settlers  or  in  the  interests 
of  what  may  be  truly  described  as  the  policy  of  the  prize- 
pig,  i.  e.,  for  much  the  s'ame  reason  that  a breeder  fattens 
his  pig  for  a show. 


XVIII. 

Japan  Contra  Mundum. 

In  addition  to  these  reasons  connected  directly  with  the 
fate  of  the  Korean  people,  the  vital  interests  of  the  world — 
particularly  the  Asiatic  interests  of  France  as  well  as  the 
Asiatic  and  Pacific  interests  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States — demand  the  dis-annexation  of  Korea  and  the  libera- 
tion of  her  people  from  Japan. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  Japan’s  envisagement 
of  Christianity  in  Korea  as  an  inimical  force.  And  it  is 
possible  that  the  Mikado’s  advisers  bethink  themselves  of 
the  anti-Christian  policy  of  Caesarian  Rome.  But  the  Caesars 
opposed  Christianity  as  a religion  and  not — as  in  the  case 
of  Japan  toda3r — in  the  belief  that  it  was  a moral  and  in- 
tellectual force  that  challenged  the  subjection  of  an  entire 
nation  and  its  exploitation  by  the  methods  of  a political 
slavery. 

In  trade  and  commerce,  Japan  is  gradually  eliminating  the 
Western  trader  and  merchant  in  Korea  and  transferring  to 
the  exclusive  hands  of  her  own  people  a business  which  has 
had  its  origin  in  the  series  of  treaties  of  peace  and  com- 
merce concluded  between  Korea  and  the  Foreign  Powers. 

In  this  elimination  of  Western  competition  Japan  con- 
tinues true  to  that  instinct  for  exclusion  which,  in  the  past, 
found  expression  in  her  rigidly  guarded  isolation  and  which 
today  expresses  itself,  for  instance,  in  the  prohibition  of 


86 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


foreign  ownership  of  land  in  Japan  and  in  the  attempt  to 
exclude  foreign  influence  in  Far  Asia  through  the  application 
of  a false  Monroe  Doctrine  for  the  Far  East. 

XIX. 

Japan’s  Continental  Policy. 

It  is,  however,  in  the  far-reaching  political  aims  of  Japan 
— realizable  eventually  through  her  continued  annexation 
of  Korea — that  France  as  well  as  England  and  America 
must  be  vitally  interested. 

The  danger  to  the  non- Japanese  world,  including  espe- 
cially the  three  Latin  and  Anglo-Saxon  powers,  lies  in 
Japan’s  unfettered  prosecution  of  her  continental  policy. 

This  policy  aims,  first,  at  the  seizure  of  the  hegemony  of 
Asia  through  the  domination  and  control  of  the  man-power 
and  the  “natural  resources”  of  China — possible  only  by  the 
Japanese  possession  of  the  continental  point  d’appui  of 
Korea — and,  next,  at  the  mastery  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  as  the 
sole  means  of  forcing  an  entrance  for  Japanese  Emigrants, 
into  the  rich  lands  of  the  Australias  and  the  Pacific  seaboard 
of  the  United  States. 

XX. 

The  Policy  in  Operation. 

The  continental  policy  of  Japan  has  already  found  its  par- 
tial expression  in  the  two  successful  wars  waged  by  Japan 
against  China  in  1894-5  and  against  Russia  in  1904-5  and  in 
the  annexation  of  Korea  on  August  22,  1910. 

The  Japanese  possession  of  Korea  renders  Chinese  sov- 
ereignty' in  South  Manchuria  and  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia 
impossible.  And  with  the  eventual  inclusion  of  these  stra- 
tegic regions  within  the  territorial  framework  of  Japan’s  con- 
tinental policy,  the  military  or  the  “pacific”  conquest  of  the 
fat  lands  of  China  and  400,000,000  Chinese  is  inevitable. 

This' is  not  the  language  of  hypothesis  or  prophecy.  It  is 
a simple  statement  of  the  deliberately  expressed  intention 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


87 


and  plan  of  the  Japanese  Government  as  set  forth  in  the 
famous  set  of  twenty-one  demands  which  Tokio  presented 
to  Peking  on  January  18,  1915,  and  secured  in  certain  treaties 
and  notes  signed  by  the  Chinese  Government  in  compliance 
with  an  ultimatum  threatening  war  (d). 

XXI. 

The  Menace  to  France. 

The  eventual  domination  of  China — which  the  continued 
subjugation  of  Korea  will  enable  Japan  to  secure — is  a spe- 
cific menace  to  France  as  an  Asiatic  power. 

The  subjugation  of  China  to  the  military  will  of  a war- 
organized  state  like  Japan  and  the  necessary  entrenchment 
of  the  latter  in  the  Chinese  province  of  Yunnan,  which 
abounds  in  tin  and  dominates  the  rear  of  l’lndo-Chine,  must 
constitute  an  obviously  political  and  “strategic”  menace  to  the 
Asiatic  dominions  of  France.  And  as  the  continued  pos- 
session of  these  dominions  by  France  is  a vital  element  in 
the  prestige  and  glory  of  the  Third  Republic  as  a world- 
power,  the  Quai  d’Orsay  must,  of  course,  realize  the  signifi- 
cance of  a Japanese  hegemony  in  Asia  which  is  based  on 
the  control  and  direction  of  Chinese  man-power  and  re- 
sources by  Japan. 

But  the  menace  to  France  is  not  a mere  “strategic  deduc- 
tion.” It  is  a political  reality.  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  three 
unavowed  aims  of  Japan;  and  because  it  is  rooted  in  re- 
vanche, the  Japanese  menace  to  France  will  continue  an 
actual  danger  to  the  Third  Republic. 

The  Treaty  of  Shimonoseki. 

France’s  war-debt  to  Japan  dates  from  the  revision  of  the 
Treaty  of  Shimonoseki  in  1895,  when  the  Tokio  Government 
was  forced  to  agree  to  the  retrocession  to  China  of  the 
Liaotung  peninsula,  including  the  great  fortress  of  Port 

(d)  The  Chinese  delegation  to  the  Peace  Conference  are  reported 
to  be  claiming  the  abrogation  of  these  treaties  arid  notes  on  the 
ground,  inter  alia,  that  they  subject  China  to  Japanese  domination. 


88 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Arthur,  whose 'cession  “in  perpetuity  and  full  sovereignty” 
had  been  secured  by  Japan  as  one  of  the  fruits  of  her  vic- 
tory over  China. 

Russia,  Germany  and  France  viewed  the  cession  of  the 
Liaotung  peninsula  as  an  act  demanding  their  joint  inter- 
vention and  insisted  on  its  cancellation  and  the  withdrawal 
of  Japan  from  the  Asiatic  mainland. 

Japan  obeyed.  But  she  instantly  began  to  work  for  the 
reversal  of  the  decree  of  the  Triple  Powers,  since  the  pos- 
session of  the  Liaotung  peninsula  was  a vital  factor  in  the 
successful  prosecution  of  her  continental  policy.  It  meant 
the  possession  of  the  threshold  of  Far  Asia,  with  direct 
entrance  into  Manchuria  and  Korea. 

Not  only  the  “necessities”  of  high  policy,  but  the  spirit 
of  revenge  spurred  on  Japan  to  the  vast  preparations  which 
culminated  in  her  victorious  war  with  Russia  in  1904-5  and 
regained  her  the  coveted  piece  of  Chinese  territory. 

The  outbreak  of  the  war  in  1914  gave  her  another  oppor- 
tunity to  work  out  her  continental  policy  with  its  edge  of 
revenge  against  Germany.  Just  as  she  had  defeated  Russia 
and  supplanted  her  in  South  Manchuria  so  she  next  defeated 
Germany  in  Kiaochow  and  supplanted  her  in  the  Chinese 
province  of  Shantung. 

The  “Ignominious  Triple  Interference 

It  is  significant  that,  while  this  triple  intervention  used  to 
be  ascribed — before  the  Russo-Japanese  war — to  the  action 
of  " Russia , Germany  and  France”  and  since  that  war,  but 
before  the  ejection  of  Germany  from  Kiaochow — to  the 
action  of  “Germany,  France  and  Russia,”  the  Japanese  are 
now  referring  it  to  the  action  of  “France,  Germany  and 
Russia.”  For  instance,  in  a recent  statement  of  “The  Case 
for  Japan,”  Baron  Makino  deemed  it  necessary  to  empha- 
size the  fact  that  the  retrocession  of  the  Liaotung  peninsula 
was  due  to  the  “force  majeure"  of  a “protest  from  France, 
Germany  and  Russia.”  And  Viscount  Chinda,  another  of 
the  Japanese  Peace  Delegates,  has  also  considered  it  expe- 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


89 


dient  to  explain  that  his  people  regard  the  said  intervention 
as  an  “ignominious  triple  interference”  (e).  These  references 
may  seem  a little  meticulous  to  the  French  mind;  but  they 
are  big  with  meaning  and  menace  when  you  know  the  Jap- 
anese mind  with  its  strange,  subtle  mode  of  working. 

And  not  the  least  important  consideration  in  this  connec- 
tion is  the  fact  that  a successful  Japanese  war  with  France 
might  mean  the  extension  of  the  territorial  system  of  Japan 
to  l’lndo-Chine  which  would  bring  Japan  within  swifter 
striking  power  of  Middle  Asia  and  those  islands  of  the  South 
Seas,  regarded  by  responsible  Japanese  publicists  as  the 
“necessary  tropical  complement”  of  a Greater  Japan,  puis- 
sant and  self-sufficing. 


XXII. 

The  Mastery  of  the  Pacific. 

Japan’s  continental  policy  menaces  the  Anglo-Saxon  pow- 
ers just  as  much  as  it  does  France,  if  not  more  so. 

Japanese  imperialists  claim  that  Japan’s  yearly  surplus 
population  justifies  the  demand  for  territorial  extension  in- 
volved in  her  continental  policy.  And  it  is  said  that  the 
“exportable  margin”  of  her  population  must  be  sent  to 
Korea,  to  South  Manchuria  and  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia 
and  the  historic  provinces  of  China. 

While  the  emigration  of  this  “exportable  margin”  may 
become  a serious  question  in  about  five  more  decades  if  the 
“Sexual  Law ” of  the  Jungle  continues  in  operation  in  Japan, 
it  appears  that  Japanese  propaganda  is  deliberately  exagger- 
ating the  facts  of  the  case  in  order  to  create  a belief  abroad 
that  Japanese  emigration  is  at  once  an  economic  and  politi- 
cal necessity  that  demands  immediate  relief. 

According  to  Japanese  political  thought,  this  “immediate 
relief”  must  be  secured  through  Japanese  colonization  in 
Korea  and  China  and,  if  possible,  through  Japanese  emi- 
gration to  Australasia  and  America. 


(e)  “Washington  Star,”  February  20,  1919. 


90 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


But  the  Japanese  know  that  they  suffer  from  disabilities  of 
physique  and  character  which  must  prevent  them  from  suc- 
cessfuly  colonizing  either  Korea  or  China  in  the  sense  of 
finding  a new  home  in  either  of  these  countries. 

Their  insular  and  physiographical  environment  has  de- 
veloped the  Japanese  into  a physical  type  that  cannot  thrive 
on  continental  Asia  and  is  unfitted,  for  instance,  to  with- 
stand the  rigours  of  life  on  the  wind-swept  plains  of  Man- 
churia and  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia.  And  the  conditions  of 
their  island-existence  have  rendered  it  impossoble  for  the 
Japanese  to  live  in  tracts  of  country  without  that  element  of 
the  picturesque  which  the  sea  and  the  volcanic  origin  of  the 
islands  of  Japan  have  introduced  into  every  Japanese  land- 
scape. 

There  are  historic  areas  in  China  where,  no  doubt,  the 
Japanese  could  live.  But  these  “places  in  the  sun” — as  the 
Prussian  teachers  of  Japan  would  call  them — are  and  have 
been  for  centuries  over-populated  by  the  Chinese  them- 
selves. 

It  is,  therefore,  elsewhere  than  on  the  continent  of  Asia 
that  Japan  must  send  her  “exportable  margin”  of  population. 
And  responsible  Japanese  publicists  make  no  secret  of  the 
national  desire  for  an  outlet  in  the  lands  of  promise  lying  in 
Australia  and  the  United  States.  Thither,  however,  the 
Japanese  may  not  go.  But  thither  he  is  "determined”  to  go. 

And  just  as  Japan  “prepared”  for  the  war  against  China 
and  for  the  war  against  the  Tsardom  and  was  ready  when 
fortune  placed  Germany  within  her  power  and  is  today 
“waiting”  for  the  hour  when  France  shall  make  amends  for 
her  participation  in  the  “ignominious  triple  interference,”  so 
Japan  is  now  engaged  at  the  work  of  “preparation”  which  is 
to  give  complete  expression  to  her  continental  policy,  i.  e., 
A colossal  struggle  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  powers  to  end  in 
the  conversion  of  the  Pacific  into  a "Japanese  Lake  and 
the  unrestricted  entrance  of  the  Japanese  immigrant  into 
Australasia  and  the  United  States. 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


91 


A Policy  of  World-Conquest. 

A bold  conception  ...  a thing  of  audacity;  and,  per- 
haps, the  Anglo-Saxon  may  envisage  it  as  a dream  beyond 
man’s  attempt.  But  similar  schemes  of  world  conquest  are 
not  unknown  in  history;  and  the  great  war  has  revealed  the 
harboring  of  a like  scheme  by  the  German  mind.  And  let  it 
be  remembered  that  the  rulers  of  Japan  have  organized  her 
as  a war-state  after  the  Prussian  type  and  that  her  conti- 
nental policy,  that  is,  her  POLICY  OF  WORLD-CON- 
QUEST, has  already  found  expression : 

(a)  in  two  successful  wars  which  have  made  her  the 
greatest  military  power  in  Asia  in  much  the  same  way 
as  Prussia’s  two  wars  made  her  the  greatest  military 
power  in  Europe; 

( b ) in  the  annexation  of  Korea; 

(r)  in  the  gradual  substitution  of  Japanese  for  Chi- 
nese authority  in  South  Manchuria  and  Eastern  Inner 
Mongolia  ; 

( d ) in  the  attempt  now  being  made  to  secure  at  the 
Peace  Conference  the  succession  of  Japan  to  German 
holdings  and  privileges  in  the  sacred  Chinese  province 
of  Shantung,  including  Kiaochow ; 

(e)  in  the  growing  subjection  of  China,  with  her  in- 
calculable man-power  and  resources,  to  Japanese  domi- 
nation by  and  through  the  same  set  of  methods  which 
made  the  annexation  of  Korea  a “political  necessity” ; and 

(/)  in  the  Japanese  possession  of  the  “South  Sea 
Islands  north  of  the  Equator,”  which  brings  JAPAN 
NEARLY  TWO  THOUSAND  MILES  CLOSER  TO 
AUSTRALIA  and  gives  the  Japanese  Navy  a base  which 
dominates  the  most  strategic  and  important  region  of  the 
Pacific. 

XXIII. 

The  Japanese  as  the  “Eternal  Priestess 

The  Korean  people  and  nation  finally  submit  that  the 


92 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


imposition  of  Japanese  civilization  on  Korea  (/)  and  its 
spread,  through  Japan’s  continental  policy,  in  Asia  and  the 
regions  of  the  Pacific  are  opposed  to  the  interests  of  the 
world  and  to  the  moral  progress  of  the  human  race. 

Japanese  life  is  disfigured  by  its  dangerous  looseness  of 
views  regarding  the  relations  of  the  sexes.  Impartial  foreign 
investigators  report  that,  while  prostitution  infests  cities  in 
the  West,  the  vice  infests  cities  and  VILLAGES  in  Japan. 
It  is  not  only  the  Government  official  and  narikin  (nouveau 
riche ) who  are  clients  of  the  geisha,  but  even  the  village 
schoolmaster. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  Japan  made,  at  one  time,  more 
out  of  her  women  engaged  in  prostitution  abroad  than  out 
of  her  export  of  coal.  This  estimate  was  based  on  the  fact 
that,  when  a Japanese  sells  his  daughter  for  service,  he  re- 
ceives Yen  250  per  annum  for  three  years.  This  sum  is  the 
equivalent  of  interest  at  5%  p.a.  on  a capital  sum  of  5,000 
Yen.  And  in  pre-war  days,  there  were  in  Irkutsk  110  Jap- 
anese houses  of  ill  fame;  and  the  Japanese  as  an  “ETER- 
NAL PRIESTESS”  was  to  be  found  in  large  numbers  in 
every  city  in  Eastern  Siberia — in  Habarovsk,  Blagovest- 
chensk,  Vladivostok. 

Today,  a moderate  estimate  fixes  the  number  of  Japanese 
prostitutes  in  Manchuria  at  10,000.  It  is  calculated  that  the 
consular  fees  paid  by  these  women  cover  the  entire  cost  of 
the  Japanese  civil  administration  in  the  province,  each  having 
to  pay  a monthly  sum  of  (Mexican)  $3  to  her  consul. 

The  Japanese  prostitute  is  also  to  be  found  in  every  treaty 

(f)  “Shortly  after  annexation  the  Japanese  Government  permitted 
Japanese  agents  to  travel  through  the  country  selling  morphia  and 
developing  the  morphine  habit  among  the  Koreans.  Then  came  pros- 
titutes. Today  there  are  thousands  of  prostitutes  brought  over  from 
Japan,  who  are  inoculating  Korean  society  with  those  terrible  evils  of 
social  vice  for  which  Tapan  as  a tace  is  almost  proverbial.  There  are 
the  public  baths  which  the  Japanese  have  instituted,  where  bathing  is 
promiscuous.  To  Korean  modesty  and  Korean  standards  of  virtue  this 
is  a serious  menace  and  will  have  on  the  growing  generation  far- 
reaching  consequences.  Between  prostitution,  public  baths  and 
gambling  old  Korean  ideals  stand  in  great  peril.” — From  a recent 
pamphlet  on  the  Korean  Question  by  J.  E.  Moore,  an  American  born 
in  Korea. 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE. 


93 


port  in  China,  in  Saigon  and  other  places  in  l’lndo-Chine, 
in  Bangkok  and  elsewhere  in  Siam,  in  Singapore — where  one 
report  states  “there  are  streets  of  them”— in  Penang  and 
then  on  to  India.  Here  the  note  of  a British  observer  may 
be  textually  quoted:  “Streets  of  Japanese  prostitutes  in 

Bombay  and  Kurrachee.  Industry  is  thriving.  They  are 
only  waiting  the  opportunity  to  push  their  way  into  Meso- 
potamia and  challenge  competition  with  the  Armenians.” 

She  also  flourishes  in  Borneo,  Madagascar,  Zanzibar,  South 
Africa;  and  at  one  time  the  “monopoly  of  recognized  prosti- 
tution round  the  coast  of  Australia  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Japanese.” 

“From  Yunnan  City  to  Urga.” 

A concluding  note  must  be  added.  It  is  a quotation  from 
a striking  article  which  appeared  in  a recent  issue  of  the 
“North  China  Daily  News,”  the  leading  British  paper  in  the 
Far  East.  The  facts  disclosed  in  the  article  have  com- 
pelled the  Japanese  Government  through  the  Japanese  Em- 
bassy in  London  to  promise  remedial  action : 

“Everywhere  Japanese  prostitution,  the  systematic  exten- 
sion of  which  from  Yunnan  City  to  Urga  is  such  an  inspir- 
ing evidence  of  our  Asiatic  allies,  goes  hand  in  hand  with 
the  sale  of  morphia. 

“Morphia,  no  longer  purchasable  in  Europe,  is  manu- 
factured now  in  well-equipped  laboratories  in  Japan  and 
in  Formosa.  During  recent  years  the  bulk  of  the  Persian 
opium  coming  into  the  market  has  been  purchased  by 
Japan  for  conversion  into  morphia,  for  Persian  opium 
yields  a larger  percentage  of  morphia  than  Indian  opium. 
Opium  grown  in  Korea,  the  cultivation  of  which  it  is 
interesting  to  note  followed  immediately  upon  the  closing 
of  the  opium  shops  in  Shantung  (by  the  Chinese  authori- 
ties)—Japanese  officials  providing  the  seeds — is  an  ever- 
expanding  source  of  the  supply  of  morphia,  and,  it  may 
be  added,  of  opium  required  by  the  (Japanese)  adminis- 
tration of  Formosa.” 


APPENDICES 


'THE  KOREAN  CONSPIRACY  CASE. 


97 


No.  1. 

THE  ANNEXATION  OF  KOREA 

The  following  treaty  was  signed  at  Seoul  on  August  22, 
1910: 

S.M.  l’Empereur  du  Japon  et  S.M.  l’Empereur  de  Coree, 
en  vue  des  relations  speciales  et  etroites  entre  leurs  pays 
respectifs,  desirant  augmenter  le  bien-etre  commun  des  deux 
nations  et  assurer  la  paix  permanente  en  Extreme-Orient,  et 
etant  convaincues  que  ces  buts  pourront  etre  le  mieux  at- 
teints  par  l’annexion  de  la  Coree  a l’empire  du  Japon  ont 
resolu  de  conclure  un  traite  de  cette  annexion  et  ont  nomme 
a cet  effet  pour  leurs  plenipotentiaries,  savoir: 

S.M.  l’Empereur  du  Japon, 

Le  Vicomte  Masakata  Terauchi,  son  Resident  general,  et 
S.M.  l’Empereur  de  Coree, 

Yen  Wan  Yong,  son  Ministre-president  d’Rtat, 

Lesquels,  par  suite  des  conferences  et  deliberations  mutu- 
elles,  sont  convenus  des  articles  suivants : 

Article  premier.- — S.M.  l’Empereur  de  Coree  fait  la  ces- 
sion complete  et  permanente  a S.M.  l’Empereur  du  Japon  de 
tours  les  droits  de  la  souverainete  sur  la  totalite  de  la  Coree. 

Art.  2. — S.M.  l’Empereur  du  Japon  accepte  la  cession  men- 
tionnee  dans  l’article  precedent  et  consent  a l’annexion  com- 
plete de  la  Coree  a l’empire  du  Japon. 

Art.  3. — S.M.  l’Empereur  du  Japon  accordera  a LL.  MM. 
l’Empereur  et  l’ex-Empereur  et  a S.A.  le  prince  heritier  de 
Coree  et  a leurs  epouses  et  heritiers,  des  titres  dignites  et 
honneurs  qui  sont  appropries  a leurs  rangs  respectifs,  et  des 
dons  annuels  seront  faits  pour  maintenir  ces  titres,  dignites 
et  honneurs. 

Art.  4. — S.M.  l’Empereur  du  Japon  accordera  aussi  des 
honneurs  et  traitements  appropries  aux  membres  de  la 
maison  imperiale  de  Coree  et  a leurs  heritiers  autres  que 
ceux  mentionnes  dans  l’article  precedent;  et  des  fonds  neces- 
saires,  pour  maintenir  ces  honneurs  et  traitements  leurs 
seront  octroyes. 


98 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Art.  5. — S.M.  l’Empereur  du  Japon  conferera  la  prairie  et 
des  dons  pecuniaires  a ceux  des  Coreens  qui,  a cause  de 
services  meritoires,  sont  consideres  dignes  de  ces  recon- 
naissances speciales. 

Art.  6. — Par  suite  de  l’annexion  ci-dessus  mentionnee,  le 
gouvernement  du  Japon  prend  le  gouvernement  et  l'adminis- 
tration  de  la  Coree  et  s’engage  a accorder  l’entiere  protec- 
tion aux  personnes  et  proprietes  des  Coreens  qui  obeissent 
aux  lois  en  vigueur  en  Coree  et  a accroitre  le  bien-etre  de 
tous  ces  Coreens. 

Art.  7. — Le  gouvernement  du  Japon,  en  tant  que  les 
circonstances  le  premettent,  emploiera  dans  les  services  pub- 
lics du  Japon  en  Coree,  ceux  des  Coreens  qui  acceptent  le 
nouveau  regime  loyalement  et  de  bonne  foi  et  y sont  dument 
qualifies. 

Art.  8. — Le  present  traite  ayant  ete  approuve  par  S.M. 
l’Empereur  du  Japon  et  par  S.M.  l’Empereur  de  Coree, 
produira  son  effet  a partir  du  jour  de  sa  promulgation. 

En  foi  de  quoi,  etc. 


No.  2. 

“THE  KOREAN  CONSPIRACY  CASE” 

The  following  extracts  are  from  a pamphlet  entitled  “The 
Korean  Conspiracy  Case,”  issued  in  New  York  on  Novem- 
ber 20,  1912,  as  the  “outcome  of  a conference  of  representa- 
tives of  all  the  missionary  organizations  of  the  United  States 
. . . conducting  work  in  Korea  with  several  eminent 
laymen  . . . connected  with  these  organizations  and 
whose  counsel  was  sought  because  their  international  repu- 
tation and  their  detachment  from  the  missionary  interests 
immediately  involved  fitted  them  to  give  dispassionate  ad- 
vice.” 

* * * * 

The  interest  of  the  civilized  world  has  been  aroused  by 
the  difficulties  that  have  developed  in  Korea  and  which 


'THE  KOREAN  CONSPIRACY  CASE. 


99 


have  culminated  in  the  arrest,  trial  and  conviction  of  a large 
number  of  Korean  Christians  on  a charge  of  conspiring  to 
assassinate  Count  Terauchi,  the  Governor  General.  The  cir- 
cumstances raise  some  grave  questions  in  which  Western 
peoples  are  deeply  concerned.  It  is  true  that  from  the  view- 
point of  international  law  and  diplomatic  intercourse  these 
questions  primarily  relate  to  Japan’s  treatment  of  her  own 
subjects;  but  it  is  also  true  that  it  may  be  said  of  nations,  as 
of  individuals,  that  “none  of  us  liveth  to  himself.”  Man- 
kind has  passed  the  stage  where  it  is  indifferent  to  what  any 
government  does  to  a subject  race. 

* * * * 

Evidences  have  been  multiplying  for  more  than  a year  that 
(the  Japanese)  military  party  is  now  in  the  saddle.  Uni- 
formed gendarmes  swarm  in  Korea,  particularly  in  the  north. 
Secret  police  are  ubiquitous.  Spies  attend  every  meeting  of 
Koreans.  All  organizations  are  suspected  of  revolutionary 
designs.  We  do  not  know  that  they  had,  but  every  country 
in  Asia  is  honeycombed  with  guilds  and  societies  of  various 
kind,  many  of  them  more  or  less  political.  The  Koreans 
would  be  lacking  in  the  commonest  elements  of  human 
nature  if  some  of  them  might  not  have  thought  of  doing 
what  every  subject  people  has  done  since  the  world  began — 
take  secret  counsel  as  to  how  the  yoke  of  the  alien  con- 
queror might  be  thrown  off. 

* * * * 

From  all  political  movements,  however,  the  missionaries 
and  the  leading  Korean  Christians  resolutely  sought  to  keep 
the  churches  aloof.  Obedience  to  the  “powers  that  be”  was 
preached  from  every  pulpit.  The  church  must  have  nothing 
to  do  with  politics,  the  Christians  were  told.  ...  So 
strong  was  this  determination  of  the  Missionaries  and 
Korean  church  leaders  that  it  was  not  uncommon  for 
Koreans  outside  the  churches  to  taunt  Christians  with  being 
on  the  side  of  the  enemies  of  their  country  and  for  the 


100 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


missionaries  to  be  told  that  if  it  were  not  for  them,  a revo- 
lution would  have  been  started  long  ago. 

* * * * 

The  missionaries  are  the  great  men  of  Korea.  While  they 
cannot  control  the  political  activities  of  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Korean  Christians,  they  have  used  their  great 
influence  to  induce  the  Koreans  to  acquiesce  in  the  Japan- 
ese rule.  Indeed,  it  has  often  been  said  that  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  missionaries,  a revolution  would  have  broken 
out  when  Korea  was  annexed  to  Japan.  The  Japanese  fully 
appreciate  this ; but  they  are  restive  under  a situation  in 
which  foreigners  apparently  have  power  to  make  or  unmake 
a revolution  among  their  own  subjects.  Japanese  national 
pride  demands  Japanese  supremacy  within  Japanese  territory. 
A Japanese  official  who  sees  himself  overshadowed  by  an 
American  Missionary  is  more  or  less  unconsciously  jealous 
and  is  apt  to  feel  that  such  pre-eminence  is  prejudicial  to 
the  interests  of  Japan  and  that  it  must  be  broken. 

* * * * 

In  the  fall  of  1911  the  Japanese  suspicion  of  the  churches 
began  to  find  more  open  expression  in  the  arrest  of  leading 
Korean  Christians  . . . many  of  the  men  and  boys 
were  kept  in  jail  for  months  without  food  or  clothing  for 
the  cold  weather,  without  knowing  the  charges  against  them, 
and  without  being  permitted  to  have  legal  counsel.  Other 
arrests  were  made  in  other  places  until  a considerable  num- 
ber of  Christians  were  in  jail.  . . . The  number  of  ar- 

rested men  that  were  sent  from  the  provincial  towns  of 
Seoul  . . . were  said  by  the  “Seoul  Press”  of  April 

19,  1912,  to  have  been  150. 

* * * * 

. the  Japanese  authorities  announced  that  they  had 
discovered  a conspiracy,  that  the  specific  charge  against  the 
men  and  youths  whom  they  had  arrested  was  a participation 
in  a plot  to  murder  Governor  General  Terauchi,  and  that 
under  preliminary  police  examination  the  accused  men  had 
“confessed”  their  guilt.  The  public  trial  began  June  28, 


“THE  KOREAN  CONSPIRACY  CASE. 


101 


1912,  before  the  District  Court  of  Seoul.  . . . It  is 

deeply  to  be  regretted  that  the  trial  proved  to  be  of  such  a 
character  as  to  strengthen  the  grave  fears  regarding  the 
methods  of  the  Japanese.  The  methods  of  procedure  impress 
a Western  mind  as  peculiar.  The  lawyers  for  the  defense 
were  not  permitted  to  confer  with  their  clients  until  shortly 
before  the  public  trial,  months  after  the  prosecution  had 
prepared  its  case  with  freest  secret  access  to  the  prisoners. 
When  their  lawyers  were  given  permission  to  see  them,  the 
conversations  were  in  the  presence  of  a scowling  police  so 
that  the  sorely  beset  men  could  imagine  what  their  jailers 
would  do  to  them  afterwards  if  anything  was  said  that  did 
not  please  them.  The  enormous  voluminous  records  of  the 
case  were  not  made  accessible  to  the  counsel  for  the  defense 
until  it  was  too  late  to  give  them  proper  study  or  to  verify 
the  allegations  of  facts.  In  court,  all  questions  were  asked 
and  witnesses  examined  through  and  at  the  option  of  the 
presiding  Judge.  The  jury  system  has  not  reached  Japan, 
and  the  whole  course  of  trial  showed  that  the  judges  had 
made  up  their  minds  before  the  trial  and  that  they  were  in 
effect  judges,  jury  and  prosecuting  attorneys  combined. 
. . . As  the  trial  proceeded  the  hostile  and  unprejudicial 

attitude  of  the  court  became  more  and  more  apparent.  In- 
numerable questions  by  the  judges  were  clearly  intended  to 
be  traps  for  the  men  whom  they  were  trying.  When  one 
of  the  pastors  was  tripped  in  a slight  verbal  inaccuracy,  the 
presiding  judge  loudly  called  him  “a  lying  Jesus  doctrine 
pastor”  and  peremptorily  dismissed  him.  At  this  the  whole 
court  laughed  heartily.  . 

Finally,  the  perversion  of  justice  became  so  gross  that  on 
July  17th,  the  counsel  for  the  defense  boldly  refused  to  pro- 
ceed and  announced  that  they  “felt  it  proper  to  state  their 
opinion  that  the  trial  was  not  being  conducted  in  a regular 
manner  and  in  accordance  with  Art.  41  in  the  Code  of  Crim- 
inal Procedure,  for  the  honour  of  the  Imperial  Judiciary 
and  with  a view  to  the  full  defense  of  the  accused,”  and 
they  therefore  applied  for  the  unseating  of  the  Chief  Judge 


102 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


Tsukahara  and  his  colleagues  and  for  a new  trial  under 
different  judges.  The  court  announced  a suspension  of  the 
trial,  pending  appeal  to  a higher  court  for  the  assignment 
of  other  judges.  The  appeal  was  overruled,  and  after  some 
delay,  the  trial  was  resumed  August  23rd,  but  was  brought 
to  a close  in  the  unexpectedly  short  period  of  four  days. 
The  judges  reserved  their  decision  till  September  28th  when 
they  sentenced  105  of  the  defendants  to  terms  of  imprison- 
ment— 6 for  ten  years,  18  for  seven  years,  39  for  six  years, 
42  for  five  years.  . . . Among  those  who  received  the 
ten-year  sentence  was  Baron  Yun  Chi  Ho,  President  of  the 
Southern  Methodist  College  at  Songdo  and  Vice-President 
of  the  Korean  Y.  M.  C.  A. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


THE  PASSING  OF  KOREA— An  excellently  illustrated 
work,  giving  a thorough  understanding  of  the  Korean  peo- 
ple, their  life,  literature,  customs  and  oppression  under  the 
Japanese  rule.  By  Homer  B.  Hulbert. 

THE  FAR  EAST — Has  a portion  devoted  to  Korea,  giv- 
ing many  interesting  facts  about  the  country  and  people. 
By  Archibald  Little. 

*THE  STORY  OF  KOREA — An  illustrated  volume  on 
the  life,  customs  and  Japanese  achievements  in  the  pen- 
insula. By  Joseph  Henry  Longford. 

KOREA  AND  HER  NEIGHBORS— A work  depicting 
the  life  and  customs  in  Korea  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
last  century.  By  Isabella  Lucy  Bishop. 

•IN  KOREA  WITH  MARQUIS  ITO— A tale  of  Korea 
during  the  rule  of  Marquis  Ito,  with  an  appreciation  for  the 
Japanese  administration.  By  George  Trumbull  Ladd. 

*KOREA — A comprehensive  review  of  the  history, 
people  and  commerce  written  through  the  courtesy  of  Jap- 
anese officials.  By  Augustus  Hamilton. 

A CHRONOLOGICAL  INDEX  OF  HISTORICAL 
EVENTS — A chronological  index  of  some  of  the  chief 
events  in  the  foreign  intercourse  of  Korea  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  ' Christian  era  to  the  twentieth  century.  By 
Horace  N.  Allen. 

COREA,  THE  HERMIT  NATION— A volume  of 
merit  dealing  with  the  people  and  customs.  By  William 
Elliot  Griffis. 

*THE  JAPANESE  EMPIRE — Contains  a number  of 
chapters  giving  a condensed  review  of  Korea  as  a province 
of  the  Japanese  Empire.  By  Joseph  Dautremier. 

TREATIES  AND  CONVENTIONS— A volume  gotten 
out  under  the  auspices  of  the  United  States  Government, 
reviewing  the  treaties  and  conventions  between  the  United 


104 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  KOREA. 


States  and  China  and  Korea.  By  William  Woodville  Rock- 
hill. 

KOREAN  TREATIES — The  most  important  documents 
negotiated  between  Korea  and  the  great  powers.  By  Henry 
Chung. 

THE  KOREAN  CONSPIRACY  CASE  — A review  of 
the  famous  Conspiracy  Case  of  1912.  By  Arthur  Judson 
Brown. 

KOREAN  COMMERCE — A United  States  Government 
publication  published  by  the  Department  of  Commerce  and 
Labor. 

*THE  JAPANESE  YEAR  BOOK  FOR  1916— Has  a 

number  of  pages  devoted  to  statistical  information  about 
Korea  or  “Chosen.” 

^OFFICIAL  GUIDE  TO  EASTERN  ASIA,  vol.  1— A 

traveler’s  guide  giving  much  general  information,  maps,  etc., 
and  prepared  by  the  Imperial  Japanese  Government  Rail- 
ways. 

^RESULTS  OF  THREE  YEARS’  ADMINISTRA- 
TION OF  CHOSEN — A Japanese  Government  publica- 
tion, showing  the  progress  in  Korea  during  the  first  three 
years  after  Japanese  annexation. 

*ANNUAL  REPORTS  AND  REFORMS  AND 
PROGRESS  IN  CHOSEN — A well-illustrated  Japanese 
Government  publication  enumerating  the  achievements  of 
Japanese  rule  in  Korea. 

PAMPHLETS:  Japanese  Diplomacy  and  Force  in 

Korea,  by  Arthur  MacLennon;  Korea’s  Appeal  for  Self- 
Determination,  by  J.  E.  Moore ; Independence  for  Korea. 

*Books  marked  with  an  asterisk  are  either  a part  of  Japanese  Gov- 
ernment propaganda  or  show  pro-Japanese  influence. 


Date  Due 


